Beneath The Darkness by Nichii

[raw]
made by Nichii for LD29 (JAM)
A Shoot 'em Up game.

Synopsis:
The sun went out quicker than everyone expected. Mankind fled into the caves and built complexes and stayed near geothermal locations to survive. Journey through the life of Karen as her brother, Kevin gets kidnapped by triads within the complex beneath the surface fo the Earth. Will they survive this? Find out as you journey through a lost world that was rid of light.

Made by me (Nicholas Chan) and my artist friend, Isaac Soong :)

Ratings

Coolness 92% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.20 376
Audio(Jam) 3.40 222
Fun(Jam) 3.18 264
Graphics(Jam) 3.26 419
Humor(Jam) 2.28 487
Innovation(Jam) 2.39 644
Mood(Jam) 3.36 236
Theme(Jam) 2.78 546

Feedback

CAT_IN_THE_DARK_WOOD
28. Apr 2014 路 15:57 UTC
Colorful arts and a lot of levels make game intresting. But can you fix hit areas of enities. Becouse colliding with nothing annoying.
falconhy111
29. Apr 2014 路 05:52 UTC
Artwork and music are really nice, a nice storyline, what else? :3

(You know who i am)
Penguincat
30. Apr 2014 路 03:14 UTC
The music was really great, and I liked the art a lot (both in the intro and in-game). The levels felt a bit too easy for me, apart from the final boss, but I was impressed by how much variety you put into the weapons and the enemies in so little time. Nice!
Andy Gainey
30. Apr 2014 路 03:57 UTC
Given the side view, it would have been much more intuitive if the hitbox didn't extend vertically to the very top of the avatar sprite, but was more a hitbox for her feet. Predicting where I could move was a bit tricky given what I saw on the screen versus when the character would stop, and walking through the first door surprised me because it happened well before I felt like I had actually reached the door.

There was also a brief moment of confusion at the beginning due to not realizing which keys did what, though that was quickly remedied with experimentation. I also didn't realize for a while that the second number on the ammo display was total bullets, so I was extra careful to conserve my ammo (which was admittedly just my own brain fart, and it did actually help with the boss fight).

Purely horizontal bullets felt like a painful limitation, as well as not being able to fire while running backwards.

Most enemies were too easy to exploit, especially since bullets wouldn't spawn unless the enemy was on screen.

The way the boss broke out of his vertical movement, got faster, and acquired bombs added some intensity to the fight, but the fight was mostly just tedious.
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 12:33 UTC
@Cant_In_The_Dark_Wood Thanks for the feedback, well we wish we could fix that, we tried and turns out it broke the entire game and there wasn't much time left to change everything so yeah :/ will try better next time though XD
@Falcon Thanks perhaps some critical feedback would be nice though XD
@Penguincat thanks, your game's story is awesome too XD
@Andy Thanks for the feedback, will do better next year ;)
Sam Oates Games
30. Apr 2014 路 13:23 UTC
Nice art style and audio!
Jacksendary
30. Apr 2014 路 13:45 UTC
Wow... 11/10 almost shred a tear, very beautyfull and fantastic game!
TheMorfeus
30. Apr 2014 路 13:57 UTC
Some info on controls would be nice. Also, missing walking animations. Overall - nice, but add animations next time.
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 14:03 UTC
@Sam and @Jack- Thanks XD Anything we can do to improve XD?

@TheMorfeus - Thanks for the feedback, we did plan to add animations during the polish stage but something went wrong and it got so buggy all of a sudden. We managed to fix the bugs but we didnt have time to add animations. Will try to do that next time XD
seantheartist
30. Apr 2014 路 14:12 UTC
Fun game to play! Love the music and level progression
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 14:13 UTC
@Sean- Thanks, any idea on how we should make our game better?
Cirrial
30. Apr 2014 路 14:38 UTC
Game was pretty easy, except for the bullet sponge boss. Nice music and sound design. The one level where you go to the left instead of right confused me a bit given how the game before didn't work like that. Nice progression with weapons and level design highlighting their strengths.
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 14:42 UTC
@Cirrial - Thanks for the feedback, we will try to balance out the difficulty next time :D
Hamsternator
30. Apr 2014 路 15:00 UTC
Impressive variation with the enemies and that final boss thingie =)
Would have been good to have some clearer audio feedback when it's time to reload and something extra to the gunplay wouldn't hurt either.
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 15:02 UTC
@Hamsternator - Thanks for the feedback, haha about that. You might have noticed the strange missing sounds for certain guns. We have been cracking our heads to make the sounds work but in the end they end up breaking the rest of the sound. Since there wasnt much time left, we decided to remove it. We believe this might have been a Game Maker bug since you have to delete and readd the objects to fix certain sounds. We will look in to this and be prepared for anymore bugs like this one day. Thanks for the feedback again XD.
Kwrky
30. Apr 2014 路 15:13 UTC
I really liked this. I thought it was a bit samey until I realized it had all been a giant tutorial for the that last level and boss. The fight against Khan was genuinely stressful by the end when he starts dynamiting everything. Fun game.
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 15:14 UTC
@Kwrky Thanks,glad you noticed that haha
SoupWithBits
30. Apr 2014 路 15:22 UTC
Love the art! There were some funky invisible objects that were annoying. I think if you improve the AI and throw in some animation it would be very awesome!
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 15:24 UTC
@SoupWithBits- Thanks for the feedback, We will try that next time haha ;D
chagroo
30. Apr 2014 路 15:24 UTC
I like the use of artwork in music/sounds in this game. Also the wide range of attacks and the end boss was nice :)
FGM
30. Apr 2014 路 15:45 UTC
Loved it. Awesome game with an emotional story. There's a bit of a glitch though where you keep enemies on the edge of the screen, and they can't fire at you.
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 15:48 UTC
@chagroo - Thanks! ;)

@FGM - It was not a glitch, but it's my fault that I made the bullet to destroy itself when it is out of the view.
javifugitivo
30. Apr 2014 路 17:11 UTC
I love the pacing of the game and the music and sound. The gameplay and graphics are correct, but a few animations for movements would be awesome. I also died in the third room (I believe) and I received a Crash about create an explosion. But great entry!
Zolkren
30. Apr 2014 路 17:45 UTC
Cool graphics and gameplay.
Tosic
30. Apr 2014 路 19:06 UTC
Its really fun but u have some mistakes (and so do i :D)

1)the beggining is like this is the 3d game with top graphics, but its not

2)Game has a story and last a while, make a pause or save

3)Bad Audio - it sounds like someone having astma when the bomb explodes

4)All the little gliches mentioned in comments

5)This one is just because my dissapointment about the fact you dont like my game, so... The story is a bit too sad for LD, but it would be a great game to sell :D
馃帳 Nichii
30. Apr 2014 路 19:33 UTC
@Tosic

1,5) Is this even a problem? :P jk

I do also have time restraint, so not much features are implemented.
myachin
01. May 2014 路 11:23 UTC
great! but i got some error:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object obj_explosion_0:

Push :: Execution Error - Variable Get 0.y(1, -1)
at gml_Object_obj_explosion_0_Create_0
############################################################################################
馃帳 Nichii
01. May 2014 路 11:25 UTC
@myachin - Thanks, we'll check it out :D
馃帳 Nichii
01. May 2014 路 12:12 UTC
explosion crash should be fixed now ;)
jomomomo
01. May 2014 路 12:47 UTC
Can't play windows games, any chance we could get a web version?
馃帳 Nichii
01. May 2014 路 12:49 UTC
@jomomomo - Unfortunately, we can't make a web version as I am still using Game Maker Studio Standard version, which is only for exporting to Windows and Mac.
Gameness Monster
01. May 2014 路 13:19 UTC
Nice game,though quite easy untill getting to the big boss. I like the music, it was into the game without getting irritating. At times I couldn't move, it was like having some obstacles I could not see! But I like it in general!!
Shide
01. May 2014 路 13:46 UTC
It was rather interesring to play, but all the way through it's too easy and the final boss is just boring. Good variety of weapons and enemies, though
GlowingSnail
01. May 2014 路 13:53 UTC
Thanks for supporting arrows keys! Thanks for keeping the game easy! But ending is so sad ;_;
Moosefly
01. May 2014 路 14:57 UTC
Good enemy and gun variation, but the A.I. was way too basic. Especially the grenadiers just kept killing themselves :D. Like others have mentioned, the collision boxes didn't feel good at all. Was also somewhat easy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, considering I don't have to struggle while playing trough it. It was a satisfying experience, thanks.

Anssi@MooseflyGames
hbocao
02. May 2014 路 00:51 UTC
Awesome job, guys! The writing was cool and the mood was spot on. The music was great. I had a great fun playing it. Keep up the good work!
Zyrconium
02. May 2014 路 14:40 UTC
Lots of good design choices that could stand to be refined a little if you have more time.

Nice cutscenes, but they don't exactly mesh with the game, thematically or mechanically(serving ss exposition and conclusion with the game only as a mechanism to get between the two)

Bomb throwing guys have a tendency of killing themselves either before I see them, or as I'm walking up to them because their bombs bounce off me.

You can glitch the gun guys on the edge of the screen where you can shoot them but their bullets don't spawn. Not a large concern, but something to fix if you had had spare time :p.

And yeah, as others said, could do with some damage tuning, as the healthbar is irrelevant until the end of the game.
trueyomic
02. May 2014 路 14:45 UTC
There were some balance issues in the game (mostly too easy) and the boss had too much hp (not that it made him hard, just took too long to get him down). Still, a solid game.
csanyk
07. May 2014 路 03:46 UTC
Lengthy, boring cutscene to open the game. Character sprite isn't animated. Interior is supposed to be underground, but just looks like a generic building interior. Enemies barely damage you, and health powerups are overly generous.
meszka
09. May 2014 路 17:27 UTC
The final boss seems very easy, but takes so long to kill, you end up running out of hp... very sneaky :P
frogcheese
10. May 2014 路 17:52 UTC
Nice, moodful little experience. It was a bit easy though, seeing as enemies did barely any damage and health powerups were very generous. Nice job on the cutscenes. :)
BlazingFanfish
15. May 2014 路 05:37 UTC
At first I was like, the gameplay is not bad, but the enemy is rather easy. Also there's a lot of healing items that make the game easier.

When I meet the boss, I was like, wow! This guy deserved to be called the boss. Died once because of explosion :v

After I finished the game, I was speechless. I never though that this game will have this kind of story. The scene were well planned, and it realy felt great (Not sure what word I must put here :v ). This game is one of the greatest game I've played in Ludum Dare 29.

Some feedback for ya.
- Add some walking animation.
- Balance the damage from bullet and explosion.
- Add some upgrading mechanics, like you can buy vest to get smaller damage or you add more guns in your arsenals.
- Reduce the ammount of bullets and health items in your game, and try make it dropable by the enemies. It'll make the player do some bullet and health managing.

That's all. Thanks for the great experience. :)