Justify the Means by Goat Toaster Games
This is my first time submitting to Ludum Dare!! :scream:
My game is called Justify the Means, based on the saying "The ends justify the means".
Made in Game Maker Studio Professional 1.4
The Game
This is a platformer which ended up being more narrative based than gameplay based.
The overall idea for my game is that in this world, magic exists. But you have to collect it from a certain plant and it runs out eventually. It also corrupts you and turns you evil, making your loved ones hate you.
However...monsters are taking over. There's too many of them. They are only killable by someone who has magic.
The more magic you have, the worse your corruption gets.
The more monsters there are, the worse the world gets.
If you get too corrupted by magic, you will turn permanently evil and get game over. :smiling_imp:
If your world gets overrun by too many monsters, you'll not be able to save your loved ones and you'll get game over. :skull:
What I would've liked to achieve.
My original intention with the last level was to make it more of a tough challenge to defeat the monsters, needing to keep the balance between the numbers of monsters while simultaneously not getting too much magic. However with my beginner levels of knowledge with coding and lack of time, I was unable to quite get the balance right. Instead I just ended up making the character basically invincible so you can at least get through the game without much hassle. :cold_sweat:
I intended to have a lot more story written into it as well.
However, For my first LDJAM and my first released-to-the-public platformer, I'm pretty chuffed at what I've achieved. I really tried to just focus more on my strengths being in the graphics. I learned SO MUCH about coding, my next Ludum Dare entry should be much better! :grin:
The future!!
I hope to flesh this game out someday in the future. I'm so inspired by this experience and I really love the core idea of my game and my original plans for it. My frustration with the lack of time has really made me want to make this a more polished game :grinning:
Thanks for playing my game!! :purple_heart:
https://twitter.com/Goat_Toaster
Bug fixes:
:ant: - Removed moving platform as it wasn't working and you could just jump across the gap anyway. - Made the description on how to talk to NPCs a bit clearer as it was confusing for some people. - Made sure dialogue boxes disappear if you run away from them.- Fixed up basically all of the dialogue issues - Accidentally uploaded a "Run as Administrator" exe. It's been reuploaded as a single time exe. - Fixed respawn placement. - Made the final room a bit easier to understand. - Fixed room that had the wrong FPS setting. - Lowered amount of particles to try and help with lag on low end PCs. - Made UI clearer and easier to understand - I've tried to fix the final level to make it more of a challenge! Let me know if it's too hard or confusing or something. (made enemies spawn faster and your arcanum goes down faster so there's more need to top it up, which makes you need to run away from the enemies for a moment while they're spawning!) - Moved an enemy spawner so that the monsters don't all just spawn in one pit. - Tried to fix any issues with tiles, on some monitors there's a 1px gap.
Known issues:
:confused: - Final level WASN'T really enough of a challenge/ didn't execute my idea properly. I've attempted to fix this, let me know what you think as I've tried fixing this up. - Story/overall game is a bit rushed. I intend to flesh it out more in a later version of the game :slight_smile: - Some lag on lower end PCs. I've dropped the amount of particles, but if there's still some lag I'm not entirely sure how to fix as I'm quite new to this and I'm open to any help/suggestions with this! :smile: - 1px gap between tiles on some monitors. I've tried to fix this, but please let me know if you have this issue! - Bugs when pressing arrow keys and the dialogue window appearing at the same time, running animations still playing but unable to move. Have to release arrow key and push it again.
| Windows | https://goattoastergames.itch.io/justify-the-means |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/justify-the-means |
Ratings
| Overall | 510th | 3.5⭐ | 63🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 484th | 3.405⭐ | 61🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 532th | 3.202⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 554th | 3.466⭐ | 61🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 216th | 4.111⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 465th | 3.143⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 268th | 3.653⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 162🗳️ | 128🗨️ |
Yeah @grentacular as most game jams probably go, I had planned to have the base coding finished on day 1 so I could have day 2 and 3 set aside for art and polish. I spent all of day 1 and 2 doing code/ figuring out problems, then pulled an all nighter between day 2 and 3 doing more coding and arting. Most of the game story was thrown together in the last 2 hours before submission haha. I would have LOVED more time to sort out the plot and the game mechanic with the monsters/magic instead of just making you invincible against them. I had it all written down damnit! I think I'll definitely make a "Final Version" later on and really flesh it out.
JAM GAME = team
COMPO GAME = single
Very well made, the graphics are really nice, everything is well done. The gameplay lake some innovation, but the hardest part when you're single to do everything.
Good job :)
Nice job.
So this was a solo jam!
Thanks so much for the feedback :D
A little sketchy on the theme imo, because more was better throughout the game except for the one point where you could collect 6 fire flowers.
I completely agree on the issue with the theme, I had intended to make the monsters at the end more of a challenge and the player having a struggle between keeping the numbers of monsters down while also not being killed by the flowers, but in the end I just couldn't get the balance right time so I just made it easy enough to get through the game.
I look forward to fleshing it out in the future and finding that balance :D
There are a few issues with player positioning when you die. the character seems to get stuck in the ground, and the only way of getting out is by jumping.
Otherwise I enjoyed playing the game. Great job!!
Oh yes I forgot to add that issue to my "known issues" area. I'll add it now. I'm not entirely sure how to fix that atm but I'm glad you can at least jump up and keep playing :) I'll see if I can fix it!
Also on the room where the game slows down, two of the most likely reasons for that is either there's an object that's probably being created every step of the game or the fps count on that one particular room might be slower. Hope that helps.
I thought it was something hidden in my code somewhere! :joy:
Overall, it's a nice little game! I guess you could easily expand upon it with a bigger storyline and a bigger world after the jam ^^ Congrats!
@linky439 Thanks so much! I'm glad I put a lot of focus on the graphics because I knew the rest wouldn't be the best :) I'm very excited to expand on it and also learn how to make better gameplay.
I'd love to play a bigger game with the same art-style and in the same universe though. Keep up the good work! :)
The end was a little abrupt, but that makes sense, seeing as how we were all on a time constraint.
I think the platforming could ba a bit more precise, it was, to quote a character, "floaty".
I also loved the fourth wall breaks. They were refreshing. :D
Ah yes I've noticed some people having lag issues on PCs that are lower end. I'm super new to this, do you have any recommendations on how to improve that? Just try to avoid particle effects where possible?
Well I don't know what you used to make the games, but in unity I know it is possible to limit how many particles you want to generate, that and maybe the particles can be decreased in terms of detail. The game is in a pixel art after all, it would make perfect sense for the particles to be as well, I can imagine that would help
- The parallax background really evokes the feeling of being in a real forest.
- The sunlight filtering through the trees gave the forest this sort of ethereal vibe that fits well with the characters
- I'm a big fan of the pupil-less eyes, pointy ears, and hair. It makes the characters seem alien, and the big eyes add clarity to the state of corruption / power level.
- It's always great to see 2D games that involve the third dimension somehow - the parallax background is quite good.
- the falling pose on the character is nice, adds another little bit of visual appeal to the movement.
- I'm glad you can jump on the enemies to kill them :D
- The story is good. Not overdone or in your face since you can skip the dialogue, but also not boring.
- PARALLAX. BACKGROUND. NICE.
Things that could be taken further:
- A little lerp on character movement would be nice. Standard "juice it or lose it" stuff.
- There are tiny gaps between the blocks that make up the ground, and it breaks immersion a bit to see regular geometric shapes in what's supposed to be a natural environment.
- There's a warning about the spikes, but no warning about the water, which seems a bit inconsistent. That's also the only place a water pit appears in the game, so I'm not sure what its purpose is. I think the game could have used a platforming area where you're avoiding spikes/water and fighting monsters at the same time - getting the player to utilize all the skills they've learned at once.
- I wish I could jump on the monsters without having used a plant. You could add an entire secret ending where you go through the game without using a single plant and become the true hero. sort of a voluntary hard mode thing.
- The glowing particle effect is neat, although I think it would be more cohesive to have the entire character sprite leaving the trail, instead of just the stomach.
- The movement on the top of the head and the arms is a bit inconsistent on the run animation. Consider having a look at [Saint11](https://twitter.com/saint11/status/782960308927291392?lang=en)'s tutorial on running animations?
On the whole, a very nice job!
- Would you mind sending me a screencap of the ground block issue? I don't seem to get that on my PC so I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about.
- Ah yes unfortunately I did intend to have another level with spikes, water and monsters etc but ran out of time. I definitely intend to do more with this in the future version of the game.
- I'll see about making the particles look more effective on the overall character!
- Saint11 is incredible, I have looked at his tutorial I'm just unfortunately new to animating and still understanding it haha. Thanks so much though I will definitely practice and try to improve on my run animations!!
I have reworked a number of things. The final level is a fair bit different now, I've tried to make it more of a challenge and more necessary to keep topping up your magic/arcanum to keep the numbers of the monsters down.
I have also tried to lower the particle amount, so if you're on a low level PC please let me know if you still experience lag.
I also tried to make the UI a bit easier to see and understand.
Thanks everyone for playing and for the helpful feedback!! :grin:
I know nothing about gamemaker, so no ideas about what the cause is, sorry =\
Still some bugs, but all in all, great game!
It looks amazing though and the little bit I did get to play was really solid!
This is really, very good, and worth some more time, it would be even better with sound effects and some more animations.
need death animation
I liked that you included the controls in game, it helps a lot :)
Is there any difference in having more magic in you? I didn't find any, maybe the attacks could be more powerful?
Overall, great job. Congratulations!
Oh yes it would've been great to implement being more powerful with more magic, but I ran out of time so the overall idea is just that there's a time limit on the magic so it lasts longer the more you have, but if you get too much you die. So I guess the difference is just not having to constantly top up on magic as much if you gather a whole bunch.