Type Them Down by Angelonias
The apocalypse came. But who needs guns when you have a keyboard? The question is..how fast can you type?

Instructions in game, but I mean, a zombie with letters on it's head..TYPE EM!

This is actually my first ever Ludum Dare. I literally decided to join the jam the last day. I didn't know how to go about it since it was a first, so decided to write it completely in standard Java. Not the libgdx engine, but the standard libraries. :P It was one great experience and hope the same applies to the rest of the developers! GL <3
Music used in the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eAalHA1bAc
Bug fixes:
- A lot Harder..(Suggested by those who already played)
- You can actually return to main menu after you die
- If you type the same letter with the Tesla tower, you won't lose a shield! That means the Tesla tower is really useful now.
Ratings
| Overall | 389th | 3.618⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 168th | 3.784⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 513th | 3.225⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 578th | 3.44⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 638th | 3.373⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 600th | 2.859⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 636th | 3.198⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 39🗳️ | 71🗨️ |
The game was pretty fun. I didn't participate this time, so I can't rate you, but I liked the artwork, and the sound effects were pretty great. It was a little interesting that pressing a button once would kill all of the zombies with that letter, but I got over that pretty quickly. I liked the upgrade system, but I do think that, post jam, it might be a bit more fun to be able to buy stuff more often, so maybe the zombies should drop more money. I made it to round 26 and was only able to buy a single tesla and one shield.
Also, about making it to round 26... The game was fun for the first [however long 26 rounds take on normal difficulty]. Then the game just crashed. It froze, and the keyboard input didn't seem to work either. I don't know what's up there, but it got a little annoying to be so far and then have to restart because the game crashed.
Very fun game though. I liked all the aspects of it, and especially enjoyed the satisfying gunshot sounds.
I'm a big fan of typing games like the Typing of the Dead so this is a perfect game for me. I'm at about 70WPM and this was too easy for me, even at the top difficulty. I didn't have the patience to get beyond Wave 10. Having a single keystroke hurt multiple enemies regardless of character order makes it way easier. Typing games like this usually require you to 'target' an enemy by typing the first letter and then type the word (or random characters) in order.
I had fun though, just wish it was a bit more challenging for me, I didn't even buy any upgrades! :-)
I wonder if I could use this to trick the kids into typing practice...
@stamblew I thought of that, but I would have to load on memory the entire english dictionary and I didn't have the time to implement that!
Exception in thread "Thread-0" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid format
at org.classpath.icedtea.pulseaudio.PulseAudioDataLine.createStream(PulseAudioDataLine.java:142)
at org.classpath.icedtea.pulseaudio.PulseAudioDataLine.open(PulseAudioDataLine.java:99)
at org.classpath.icedtea.pulseaudio.PulseAudioDataLine.open(PulseAudioDataLine.java:283)
at org.classpath.icedtea.pulseaudio.PulseAudioClip.open(PulseAudioClip.java:402)
at org.classpath.icedtea.pulseaudio.PulseAudioClip.open(PulseAudioClip.java:453)
at angelonias.ld40.main.Soundbox.<init>(Soundbox.java:51)
at angelonias.ld40.screens.ScreenManager.<init>(ScreenManager.java:17)
at angelonias.ld40.main.GamePanel.init(GamePanel.java:67)
at angelonias.ld40.main.GamePanel.run(GamePanel.java:73)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
@mouseroot A workaround is to use Oracle's Java implementation to launch it rather the default OpenJDK. [Edit: Though I still seem to have the Window size issue. After after a couple of attempts it opens.]
It is a bit confusing that every letter disapears with 1 click even if a zombie "named" jjl.
I was loosing a lot by pressing j twice...
But overall i played that game longer than i should have ^^
Suggestions:
- I felt it was too easy even on the hardest setting. Could be faster to ramp up.
- I think if each zombie never had duplicate letters I wouldn't have to be so careful not to press the same letter twice (which is the main way I lost health) (although thinking about it, it does fit the theme)
- Or you could have a cooldown on a letter disappearing before you lose health for pressing it.
But all said really good, the presentation was great, really nice entry!
* Definitely longest I've ever played a typing game, strangely addictive.
* Having duplicate letters tripped me up several times, making me have to focus harder.
Stuff that could be improved:
* Takes too long to get enough money for even one upgrade
* Tesla upgrade causes more problems than it solves, I type out a sequence of letters but sometimes the Tesla already typed one.
@pilarius @duzzondurms Thank you for your feedback. I left duplicates because I think it made the game a little trickier!
@sleepystrix You are absolutely right, you got me.. Tesla as it is, can cause a loss of a shield. I was thinking setting a timer when tesla types a word...so when you type the same one (like a second after), it won't count as a misstype! Thanks for the feedback!
I found some annoyances with this one though. Sometimes the "words" would have two of the same letter which made me instinctively lose a shield/life.
I wish you could've explored some more grounds with this game, as generally all typings games feel a lot like the same, and some innovativiness could go a long way.
anyways, the game was fun to play and difficult on the hardest setting, which is always nice. Good job :D
Nice work.
@grentacular Yeah I get that a lot. It's on my plans to fix it.
@jfraser314 I would be honored! :)
Overall, loved it.
PS. I 2nd the suggestion to make an HTML5 version. It would be my go-to resource for people asking how to learn to type.
Also I agree about the music being too low.
Really **linux** build works for you? Two others said that didn't so..
Thanks for your feedback!
I don't really get the tie in to the theme. I would get it if hitting a key didn't kill that letter on all the zombies. so you had to be faster, get faster. but otherwise the link is a bit weak sorry to say.
Overall, a nice entry for the LD40 :) nicely done!
I enjoy this game but some typing mistakes will kill myself is odd for the game. Maybe you can make the input disable for some seconds as a punishment instead of losing health.
Come check out my game if you like!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/virus-detected
turns out my typing speed needs improvement! i could see this being a cool little educational game with some tweaking of the art style.
Good job