Shots In The Dark by parzivalTheVirtual

[raw]
made by parzivalTheVirtual for LD31 (JAM)
This was not meant to be a JAM submission but a combo one but I didn't submit the entry the proper way so I'm just going to submit it here so I can at least vote on the other entries.

It’s been a long and tiresome road but we got something that looks like a game :D

I know it might seem weird to post a screenshot of the menu but once you try the game you’ll understand why… it’s basically a black screen due to the nature of the game.

Your only light source are the bullets you fire & a tiny flashlight. Both of which attract hordes of hungry, badly drawn zombies and it only takes one touch to kill you.

I hope you have fun! I sure had making it and I’m planning to continue improving it and polishing it as an exercise for myself into the realm of game polish and juiciness.

I’m terribly sorry for the horrible graphics you’re about to see. I tried my best but I sure ain’t an artist.

Feedback

fuzzalicious
10. Dec 2014 · 17:30 UTC
Love the flashlight effect, haaate the music.
🎤 parzivalTheVirtual
10. Dec 2014 · 19:55 UTC
Really regret putting the stupid music in :P... I'm gonna replace it soon with something not cringe worthy.
snapman_GT
11. Dec 2014 · 04:20 UTC
Interesting idea, but some of the tension is lost by the ability to see the zombies in the dark without shooting or using the flashlight? If you slowed the pace way down it might work without that crutch.
MiniBobbo
11. Dec 2014 · 04:25 UTC
I agree about the zombie brains glowing in the dark makes the game lose some of its tension. Plus, the music subtracts also. This might work without any music, but only occasional groaning and gunshot noises!
paperweight
12. Dec 2014 · 21:53 UTC
Why no overall or innovation category? This was an excellent idea...
🎤 parzivalTheVirtual
14. Dec 2014 · 10:20 UTC
@paperweight: Sorry for the omission. It must have been a mistake on my part. Thanks for letting me know!

@MiniBobbo: I agree with you. I should remove the music.

@snapman: I could tweak the speed of the zombies a bit and lose the brain glowing. I will definitely try that, thanks!
hoqjed
21. Dec 2014 · 22:51 UTC
You really shouldn't be so hard on yourself about the graphics, Unity's lighting engine carries most of the weight here anyway and does a good job of making it look polished.

The idea itself is creative, and I think it was implemented somewhat well-ish but obviously could be taken much further.

The area that really needed the most work was the audio. Really, don't underestimate how powerful and important audio can be to really create an experience. The music in my perspective wasn't a great choice and seems like an afterthought. It doesn't match the dark atmosphere of the game and picking something that was more somber could have helped a great deal. I think this game's world would actually feel very good without music and relying more on atmospheric sounds. Having footsteps, a gunshot sound, ricochet sounds, etc and having a great deal of reverb (echo) applied to each one would have really created a nice claustrophobic atmosphere for this.

You had a really nice direction and concept here, so don't knock yourself down too much about this entry. I think you should spend a little more time adding in some quality sound and making small changes to gameplay to really do your idea justice. If you revise it some, feel free to send me a link to check it out again and I'll give you my thoughts on it. You can find me on twitter as @CriticalMammal.
erik
28. Dec 2014 · 22:32 UTC
The lighting really is quite nice. Add some sound effects, a bit of polish on the gameplay, and some goals, and you could have something pretty fun to play.