HeartString by pcoridan

[raw]
made by pcoridan for LD 44 (JAM)

titlescreen.png HeartString.
A legendary Bow.
Its unstoppable force comes at a price though, every shot, every pull on the heart string, also, pulls from its users life-force.

Wield its awesome power carefully, many of its past owners have payed the ultimate price for this power.

-Controls .
WASD to move .
Mouse to aim and shoot .

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzg8L5bDNP4

Ratings

Given 31🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

jlelez
30. Apr 2019 · 02:23 UTC
Hello !

- The graphics and sounds are so cool :)

- I played with my mouse but i think the target is for gamecontroller right ?

Good job !
Team Kelly
30. Apr 2019 · 04:12 UTC
Great stuff! Feels really good to play and looks great. Especially liked the use of lighting, made the game feel much more alive.
Oktarian
30. Apr 2019 · 13:40 UTC
The game looks amazing! Using the bow is a bit hard but still a fun game with a great ambiance. I like it a lot!
two70
30. Apr 2019 · 13:41 UTC
The controls were a bit clunky. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and sound you have going on
RAFFE
30. Apr 2019 · 13:42 UTC
Woah!
That was cool! The graphics and music are so freaking moody! All of the sprites look really cool and the players shooting works really well! Also the menu screen was sick when the character even turned to watch you..!

If I needed to say 1 complaint, I think it would be the movement since it just felt kinda weird and sluggy, but maybe I would just need to get used to it. Didn't manage to beat the game but it was cool to play. Congrats on making such a cool game guys!
NandoN
30. Apr 2019 · 13:57 UTC
Great art and choice of music. Gameplay and feel could use more work.
Cleowillo
30. Apr 2019 · 13:59 UTC
This was a really great game that presented a calm atmosphere for what I'd call a tense objective, soo smooth, love the music btw.
(I should've worked with someone on mine)
Lorwon
30. Apr 2019 · 14:30 UTC
First of all i want to say that the graphics are really cool, the audio is nice and the theme is well respected.
For the negative part I just want to say that the game is quite easy, and at the begining the way the character walk is a little akward.
But you have done a really good job :).
Becher
30. Apr 2019 · 14:39 UTC
aside from the feeling i walk on ice, or i'm drunk... i really like this game, graphics and concept are cool.
At the end i don't have enougth life to shot so i ran away with a hord beside me X)
wolderado
30. Apr 2019 · 15:03 UTC
Graphics are awesome. Controls are a bit wonky though. I played with mouse and it looks like you didn't locked the mouse position. Crosshair position changes a lot according to where mouse position is. I had a hard time aiming espicially those small enemies (chickens?). Other than I had fun.
Lola
30. Apr 2019 · 16:59 UTC
Le jeu est très joli j'ai passé un chouette moment !
(at first I thought you were playing a cucumber lmao)
Conroy
30. Apr 2019 · 17:00 UTC
@lola hahah When I first made him, it very much looked like a pickle....but alas now he is a cucumber
Lola
30. Apr 2019 · 17:09 UTC
Love it !
JKazuk
30. Apr 2019 · 20:40 UTC
Such a chill atmosphere. Love it! Mouse controls leave something to be desired but I imagine that would be better with a controller. Had a lot of fun with this one.
Sempiternal
01. May 2019 · 02:58 UTC
Great graphics and music, really make the atmosphere work for me. Controls aren't great but you can just perceive them as an extra challenge ;p
Awesome job overall!
SuperGamersGames
01. May 2019 · 03:14 UTC
Looks interesting, I'll play it when I can.

Also, love the name.
Kritz
01. May 2019 · 03:24 UTC
Visuals are really well done, my goodness! Very atmospheric, everything looks and feels consistent. Good work guys, very nice game. However, I feel like the gameplay elements needs some work. The gameplay reminds me a lot of the icy level in Spyro 3, where you gotta skate on the ice and push ice cubes into the enemy's goal. But this can be easily fixed by just manipulating the positions instead of force and velocity.

Overall though, I love the arts, the visuals, the music and yes I'm GOD DAMN jealous but holy moly that's... that's just... *Mwah* fabulous! Tell the artist "Keep up the good work" for me. See you guys in the next Jam! :)
Carraka
01. May 2019 · 03:57 UTC
At first I tried to run around all of the enemies, and they all clustered together, causing the framerate to drag, so I couldn't even kill them. After that I just killed enemies one by one and made a break for the stairwell when I saw it, like a normal unskilled person. The graphics really comes together! The music was beautiful, but it didn't really fit the frenzy or violence of the gameplay. It sounded like I was supposed to be comtemplating something, but really I was just shooting stuff and running away.
Tattomoosa
01. May 2019 · 04:25 UTC
Visuals are very nice. I seemed to have some issues with hitting enemies, the arrow would fly through one periodically. Wish it had more sound effects, but I liked what was there. I thought the music was pretty good.

Was there a way to read the books? There were so many designs and they seemed almost highlighted in the levels but no matter what I pressed I couldn't read one.
Magnanix
01. May 2019 · 09:54 UTC
Nice small game, love the art style, and the music piece that was on loop :).
Had issues with mouse aiming, through that is on me. Only other thing was that sometimes the collisions on the skeletons felt like they weren't triggering, and there was no immediate feedback to show that I'd hit them (so I shot many arrows, when one would have done :P).
🎤 pcoridan
01. May 2019 · 13:57 UTC
Thank you all for the awesome comments!! If anyone checks back we did add a WebGL build with the controls fixed up as they were pretty buggy.
Linnet5
01. May 2019 · 15:37 UTC
From the short time I had to try the game, I have some issues with the player being incredibly fast and the complete lack of visual or audio feedback when taking damage from enemies. I also feel as there is no goal to the game as I will die no matter my playstyle. The graphics are really clean however and the music is superb.
Greg Lord
01. May 2019 · 16:04 UTC
Really beautiful pixel art -- between that and the lighting and the animations, the mood was perfect. The music was atmospheric and haunting, and set the tone the rest of the way. Loved the environment all around.

The couple of thoughts I had would be to smooth out the acceleration of movement a little, so that it's less floaty, and to add some kind of visual or auditory confirmation when you've killed each of the enemies. The squeak of the rats was easier to tell than the skeletons, who seemed to pause a few frames in a standing pose before dying, which usually burnt an extra arrow or two trying to kill them. Small things, hopefully, and otherwise it's great!

Would love to see more -- well done, and good job!
Gaming Night
01. May 2019 · 16:05 UTC
Really beautiful, really liked the introduction with the good music choice.
Well done !!
Nerzal
01. May 2019 · 16:05 UTC
Hey, does the game really end after level 2?
Felt strange to end that sudden :D
Nice graphics and music :)
B33Thr33
01. May 2019 · 16:29 UTC
Nice graphics, music and atmosphere, theme was well implemented, but gameplay felt a bit unprecise for this kind of game and I missed some hit feedback. Overall interesting experience though.
Langotriel
01. May 2019 · 17:05 UTC
Someone needs to give the artist a kiss from me cause the visuals are beautiful and the choice of music goes well with it to create a good mood!
Tommyflower
01. May 2019 · 17:14 UTC
Great mood and choice of music. I feel that there should be a way to rate choices of stock assets as well! :) I enjoyed the game, the light effect adds atmosphere and the sprites are super! Had a little trouble with the mouse but got the hang of it. Only thing: I would have loved some more visual cue to identify interactive objects. Overall a great job!
Enjoy The Tale
02. May 2019 · 04:12 UTC
Amazing atmosphere, incredible pixel art, music and sound made the game as imersive as possible! Great job! Just one thing, and that's my opnion, I think that an animation when the arrow hits the enemy would be more interactive to the player feel that he is inflicting damage.
LeviDSmith
02. May 2019 · 04:23 UTC
Nice survival game. I managed to complete both levels. Once I figured out where the exit was located, I would make a mad dash through the level and have a long conga line of skeletons and rats following me. I liked the graphics and animations (eight directions for the player is a lot). I wish there were some health pickups throughout the level, and I kept wanting to interact with the books on the table.
Aditya Kumar
04. May 2019 · 19:46 UTC
I loved the use of lighting, and merging time money and health all into 1 was a really good actualization of this theme. I agree with previous comments that were wishing for items, I think with some more interesting mechanics that work with the whole "life is ammo and timer and currency" idea , this game could be really interesting.
vjmunhoz
04. May 2019 · 19:49 UTC
the game is cool, I was at 50 life when I realised that I would not recover it till the end of the room haha
Webox
04. May 2019 · 19:56 UTC
Oh man the music was so well fitted with the game's mood. The life draining bar was spectacular and the art is great. Maybe enemies were a a bit too fast to move and a bit too slow to attack you. I ran out of health pretty quick at first since I started shooting like an idiot haha. I didn't read the manual..
minibobbo
04. May 2019 · 22:40 UTC
Great ambiance! The controls were a little loose and I think that the camera makes things a little difficult. I found a pretty simple way to let the player have a little extra space when shooting. All you need to do is position the camera half way between the player and the mouse cursor. It is dead simple to do and I think leads to a nice feel. It looks like this.

![wingman_shooting.gif](///raw/b17/z/24981.gif)
🎤 pcoridan
04. May 2019 · 22:48 UTC
@minibobbo Ohhh I like that, our first iteration of the controls was more for a controller which we didn't really realize, so we just dumped it and went free mouse. We should try adding that and see how it looks.
minibobbo
04. May 2019 · 22:52 UTC
It's super easy to do and gives the player the ability to look ahead at the cost of the vision around themselves. I think it is a good tradeoff.
Ivan Garcia Filho
05. May 2019 · 18:34 UTC
Lovely, touching and chilling folk music also an awesome artwork.

You could enhance the experience polyshing the sounds, like adding footsteps, equipment bag shaking and leather shrugling as long ad the protagonist walks.

Improve the ambience by adding some torchs fire crackling, reverberance do add space and depth to the dungeon, echoing noises like, rats, bats and dripping water.

Increase the strength of the shooting by adding a string stretching sfx, wood creaking to the bow, a vibrating arrow upon impact and some grunts from the protagonist before firing the arrow.

Add more weight to the skeletons through some sfx like bones shaking and falling/rolling upon death.