Bladeless by kidevil

[raw]
made by kidevil for LD26 (JAM)
Tried to finish this off for the comp, but ran out of time. Took longer than I expected to fine tune the gameplay.

Hopefully it paid off :)

The details? Made in Flash. Gameplay involves countering the enemies' attacks by choosing the right block based on his movements, then countering back with your own attack. Endless stream of enemies, and the difficulty ramps up with each kill.

The character and enemies are all randomly generated from a mix of outfits, so you may never see the same guy twice.

Tips: the enemy has 3 attacks, high, mid and low. He repositions his sword to show where he is about to attack. As soon as you know where he's going, hit the corresponding counter button. At any time, hit up, left, or right to set what attack you will do following a successful counter.

*** Tutorial pic below :) ***

Ratings

Coolness 77% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.75 55
Audio(Jam) 3.38 139
Fun(Jam) 3.52 79
Graphics(Jam) 4.38 27
Humor(Jam) 2.12 277
Innovation(Jam) 3.48 107
Mood(Jam) 3.86 30
Theme(Jam) 3.40 226

Feedback

MinionStudios
30. Apr 2013 · 03:37 UTC
Love the Style! what a great game! I was intimidated by the controls, but after a short learning curve it was all skulls.
cason
30. Apr 2013 · 03:42 UTC
Very awesome. Addicting gameplay. The mid-blocks are tough...
Almax27
30. Apr 2013 · 03:48 UTC
Awesome style, and well polished. Struggled with working out how and when to block but it added to the challenge :D
ilo
30. Apr 2013 · 04:10 UTC
Ultra-stylish with clever mechanics. I do wonder how it could be developed further though, because after half a dozen skulls I felt I had seen everything the game had to offer.
olkeencole
30. Apr 2013 · 04:15 UTC
Nice game! Really enjoy the art style and the game play. Fiendishly difficult at first, but very rewarding if you stick with it.
Andrewves
30. Apr 2013 · 05:42 UTC
I love the visual style of this game, the silhouettes really shout minimal. Great job.
axcho
30. Apr 2013 · 05:44 UTC
Very cool to see something (perhaps?) inspired by Iaido. I found it difficult to learn the cues for which block would counter the coming attack, so I wonder if it might be a more enjoyable experience if it started with only one height level, then two different height levels, then three. Still very cool though.
🎤 kidevil
30. Apr 2013 · 06:26 UTC
Thanks for the comments everyone! Can't wait to get some time and run through all your games :)

ilo: Ah! I still had my testing values in for the difficulty scaling, so it went super slow. Fixed now.

axcho: that would have definitely made it more user friendly, but I wanted to add in the trial and error aspect, so you get to die a bit before figuring it out :)
angelk
30. Apr 2013 · 07:12 UTC
I couldn't get any sense of the timing so this ended up just being the prettiest version of rock-paper-scissors I've ever played, and I don't mind! The art is fantastic :)
ilo
30. Apr 2013 · 09:32 UTC
It does feel better now. There's a great flow to the combat, and the difficulty really kicks in around the seventh one. :)
🎤 kidevil
30. Apr 2013 · 10:12 UTC
Yea, the speed maxes out when you hit 10 kills now, and before it was at 25 :/ After that, it just keeps increasing counter percentage.
Alex Camilleri
30. Apr 2013 · 20:09 UTC
As angelk said, I couldn't get any sense of the timing. Nice style, though.
qdowngames
30. Apr 2013 · 20:13 UTC
I love how the characters are randomly created. Really addicting once you get the hang of it!
bobiniki
30. Apr 2013 · 20:22 UTC
Great mood and artstyle. I kind of suck playing the game, but it is really well done and very polished.
martijn
30. Apr 2013 · 21:19 UTC
Awesome game, but difficult to get the hang of, but once you ¨get it" it is quite fun
muton
30. Apr 2013 · 21:31 UTC
Super stylish, and pretty fun.
It'd be nice to be able to change defensive posture, and a couple of times I hit a bug where the guy was stuck in a fighting stance after the opponent died - needed a page refresh to fix.
SomeNetworkGuy
30. Apr 2013 · 21:32 UTC
This was fun... once I figured what to do. And it was still challenging. Nice work!
TheMightyComp
30. Apr 2013 · 21:34 UTC
I love the concept and the art style - overall, very well executed. My one complaint was that no matter what I did, I could never execute a high block. Despite mashing 'R' like a fiend, nothing happened (possibly due to the fact that I'm on Mac?) It was frustrating to be continually disemboweled because of this, but other than that, great game.
DrGeraud
30. Apr 2013 · 21:35 UTC
Your game is really cool !
michail
30. Apr 2013 · 21:35 UTC
After a few replays I got it, very well done! And - it's hard not to mention it - awesome graphics!
ramoncb
30. Apr 2013 · 21:38 UTC
amazing game! and pretty complex! =O
vladimirdlc
30. Apr 2013 · 21:47 UTC
Gorgeous art, I like how the mechanics are not just pure luck but involve some thought.
Jod
30. Apr 2013 · 21:49 UTC
I have walked the bloody path of the samurai for so long I have forgotten why I fight. There is only me, my enemy and our blades.

What a beautiful game, such atmosphere! Caught the minimalism theme very well indeed. A very good cohesion between audio, video and gameplay.
tacograveyard
30. Apr 2013 · 22:00 UTC
Great style! Controls were a bit tricky at first. I still don't love them, but I do love the game.
🎤 kidevil
30. Apr 2013 · 22:15 UTC
Thanks for the comments everyone :) Glad the art style works, and know what I need to do to make the controls more intuitive :)

muton: I'm right with you there. Changing guard positions is definitely something I want to add. Also the ability to strike first. Already had it in the game, but wasn't able to tweak it in time. Basically, you could spam attacks and win every fight. Will have to check out that bug too :(

mightycomp: Ah, looks like a font issue. The controls are a, s, d, but I can see how a caps A can look like a caps R.
🎤 kidevil
30. Apr 2013 · 22:30 UTC
update: muton: figured out the glitch. If you keep hitting one of the block buttons after killing the guy, it will play the block animation and you get stuck in it. Good catch and an easy fix :)
Dmitrix
30. Apr 2013 · 23:37 UTC
Interesting game play, nice graphics and sounds.
zazery
01. May 2013 · 02:25 UTC
Once you get the hang of blocking and countering it's pretty fun. I'm terrible at figuring out where to block. Solid game.
kazukishida
01. May 2013 · 02:35 UTC
First thing i noticed was the art! cool art and very smooth movements for the characters in the game. i had a hard time timing the buttons tho but still good enough! i'll continue on playing this. Great game!
🎤 kidevil
01. May 2013 · 05:20 UTC
I think the timing thing is throwing everyone off. It's not so much about timing the block as it is about recognizing what direction and hitting the block asap.

I think axcho had it right at the start...this thing needs a quick tutorial level to start er off :)
8BitPimp
01. May 2013 · 10:08 UTC
I like it a lot. Nice concept, and not as hard as I thought it would be. Only complaint is that it was too easy to set your next stance immediately after a fight before the enemy has moved in the next round. Hmm, I hope you know what I mean :S.
pereubu
01. May 2013 · 10:55 UTC
great job. The feedbacks are really hard to understand and anticipate at the start ( it was very frustrating ), but I really like the concept :3
Casino Jack
01. May 2013 · 16:42 UTC
Looks amazing, but I found it practically impossible (more like rock-paper-scissors as someone else mentioned) until I came back here and saw the tutorial image. I think it'd be much better if you fought increasingly difficult opponents which slowly introduced the different blocks/counters.
smilingrob
01. May 2013 · 18:47 UTC
I like how the menu doesn't exist and you just walk away from the title screen. Nice ambiance.
N427
01. May 2013 · 19:41 UTC
Very cool, loved the gameplay! I hope you expand upon it and make it into a full game.
Dohan
01. May 2013 · 20:05 UTC
Awesome art & mechanic! The only issue I've had with the game is that you can't change the defense stance once you've chosen one.
kill0u
01. May 2013 · 20:41 UTC
Awesome :)
🎤 kidevil
01. May 2013 · 21:25 UTC
Thanks for the feedback!

N427: definitely plan to fix it and build on it in the next few weeks. Think it has some potential once all the kinks are worked out:)

Dohan: I agree! You NEED to be able to switch the block, and it just makes more sense for the gameplay.
DavidErosa
01. May 2013 · 23:04 UTC
Wow, tried to play without reading the tutorial and got really wasted :D After having a look at it it was easier to play, but not to defeat.

A pity the defense can't be changed, it leads to a bit of frustration.

Thanks for the game!
vilya
01. May 2013 · 23:54 UTC
Very atmospheric & nice mechanic. Like it!
Polar
02. May 2013 · 16:07 UTC
Quite a nice little game, although sometimes my character didn't attack after a successful block - I'll presume I missed something in the instructions :) I also agree with a gentler difficulty curve - the game is *unbelievably* hard at first :P
🎤 kidevil
03. May 2013 · 19:06 UTC
polar: I think it's more of an animation issue here. After you block, you always counter attack, but the animation jumps right to the sword clash animation if the enemy blocks you as well. It may look more like a double block than a block and attack.
SonnyBone
03. May 2013 · 19:20 UTC
Really awesome execution! It's very satisfying to get a kill, and you always kick yourself when you screw up reading the block. Nice risk vs reward. Love the minimalist look!
ghostinthesoft
05. May 2013 · 07:24 UTC
Pretty nice. I didn't get it before I saw your tutorial, but after this it was fun.
arrogant.gamer
05. May 2013 · 23:48 UTC
Pretty cool, but I think I prefer Karateka.
Colapsydo
06. May 2013 · 09:08 UTC
Characters and animation are incredible here, I like their diversity.

I first thought the game was casual, then I read the tutorial picture. It could be a good thing to introduce a small tutorial in the game, it would be a pity that people don't catch it because this game worth some playing time from them.
someone
10. May 2013 · 15:43 UTC
Excellent game. Love all the characters. Really great animation.
It was irritating that you cant change which block you choose though.
heuermh
14. May 2013 · 04:10 UTC
Very cool, nice work on generated graphics.
Orni
15. May 2013 · 07:02 UTC
brilliant game

well done :D
zkenshin
15. May 2013 · 15:30 UTC
Neat game. Had fun testing this one. :)
🎤 kidevil
15. May 2013 · 19:46 UTC
Thanks all :) Working on an updated now based on feedback and adding a bunch of stuff I didn't have time for originally.
Gravel
17. May 2013 · 14:30 UTC
Really nice gameplay. Great style.
Nice job!
voxel
18. May 2013 · 09:58 UTC
Amazing visuals, found it difficult to work out but maybe I'm just a little dumb
Jhelle
20. May 2013 · 12:44 UTC
Nice art. But controls could be a bit more intuitive by placing them vertical instead of horizontal.