I really enjoyed the take on the theme. The sound was great, which helped set the mood. Humor was there (I mean c'mon it is hilarious). Graphics weren't anything great, but they did the job. Solid entry.

My god the goalkeeper :-) Nice game

nice game! lol that goalkeeper was hilarious. Love the graphics, mood, and music. The upgrades were nice too. :D

Love the idea. The sound really set the mood. Fun game!

Holy f*ck :smiley: I got the Twin Peaks vibe big time! I didn't really think that these too mechanics would fit together so well. (and your groaning deserves some kind of special award)

Already waiting for the post-mortem. :smiley:

Well done!

I'm found very funny to punch ball in to zombies :D
Music is awesome as always!

Good job, coffee drinker ;D

Hi Phil! Is it possible to make a Mac build?

@jiri-hysek Sadly not, I don't have the export module for Game Maker. But I'll make a little video of it and put it on YouTube later. Spoiler: You're not missing much ;)

@philstrahl Ok then, I've noticed your earlier games are also windows only so I just wanted to check if there is some kind of limitation or you just didn't exported it.

Btw. even this wont work https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/$73264/promo-free-gamemaker-studio-2-for-ld41?

Anyway, I can't wait for documentary! If you get some time to record playing some LD41, I'll be if glad you will include mine game again :) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/puzzle-golf

Servus! Unfortunately I cannot play your game on my 32 bit Windows machine, can you please make a 32 bit build? That would run on 32 and 64 bit Windows alike.

@gonutz I'll try it, but I don't know if that's even possible because Game Maker Studio 2 doesn't offer me to choose between architectures. I'll let you know.

@jiri-hysek So far I only gut Unity games reliabky working on MacOS, even Linux won't build correctly:/ And thanks for your game! Will record another LD Let's Play session soon :)

Nice work Phil. The graphics, music and sound effects are pretty spot on. My only complaint is that it was difficult to control with the keyboard. The ball would bounce in unpredictable directions leading to frightful moments of "oh crap, the ball is way over there now and I can't see anything." Overall, nice work and I'm looking forward to the video!

Oh, I am sorry, googling it I see that GM2 always creates 32 bit .exes but it uses DirectX 11 and I am running my games on a Windows XP virtual machine. XP only has DirectX9. This means that I cannot play GM2 games it seems.

Do you have a Linux export? That I could play...

Hey Phil the game ended up great!
Nice touch on giving the ball the lightning. It took me 6 minutes to score :P
Congrats on the entry and can't wait for the documentary, I know it will be extreme!

Great work Phil! I really liked the graphics, audio and the overall atmosphere it created. The gameplay was good too, but it feels a little raw. The only way to take damage and die is if you kick the ball in some awkward place that is hard to recover, which is all on the player to mess up. I feel you should have capitalized on that and maybe create a simple second type of zombies who would be a little faster ones specifically targetting the ball (as in kicking it away from you). They could contest your control of the ball and make the game more difficult (although maybe a bit frustrating at times), but a lot more fun to play. Solid entry nonetheless!

hahahaha, as always a really nice game! Loved the goalkeeper

Simple concept, executed well!

Looking forward to the postmortem!

I like the game a lot. It's really fun to play. Controls felt a bit awkward at first (I'd assume that dribbling a ball around a horde of zombies would feel a fair bit awkward so it only makes sense) but when I bounced the ball off the wall to kill 4 zombies during my second playthrough I realized that this game is one of those "a minute to learn a lifetime to master" kind of affairs. A high skill ceiling gives Zoccer surprising longevity which is always an issue with jam games. Music and sound are superb which add to the mood of the game. AI works well (zombies be zombies) if we ignore some minor glitches caused by the walls. Oh, and the premise is of course hilarious.

The only negative thing I can think of is the 'programmer art'. The game looks like a GameMaker game, but it didn't detract from the experience, especially when we take the context of a 48-hour game jam into account.

Out of curiosity, are any of the game elements procedurally generated (some parts of the map layout, placement of items/enemies)? The light mechanic (which is great btw) made it so I couldn't really tell for sure even after multiple playthroughs.

All in all, it's a good game with some truly great elements and only one major flaw that's easy to ignore. Great job!

Nice game. I tried so hard to find that goal but i couldnt.......... but nice game :D

Oh boy, this was tense. Really great atmosphere, including sounds. I think you could work on the way the ball is being rendered because it looks just flat and not sphere-ish at all. Also I think that the unlit area shouldn't be completely pitch black, but you should see faint silhouettes of the player and enemies. Other than that, this is really nice. Kudos! :)

Great work! Incredible idea to make a ball also a weapon and a light source. Also, a giant goalkeeper is a brilliant unexpected turn!

Personally I found zombies too weak, but it doesn't break fun at all.

@gonutz Ah, that explains it. With Game Maker Studio 2 I can only export to DirectX 11, only good old Game Maker 1.4 still targets DirectX 9, so I remain sorry that there's no way for you to play the game :/ But I might record a little playthrough and put it on YouTube, so at least you can see some gameplay.

@sempiternal I agree with all your points. There just wasn't time for another enemy type but I'd love to have included one that only attacks when you're far from the ball, for example. Zombies kicking the ball away would make TOTAL SENSE in terms of the whole soccer thing, you're absolutely right!!

@lemonbalmgames Thanks for playing and the effort of writing such a long comment! I am glad you found more in the game than there actually is to it. I'd say my collision and bouncing implementation is wonky, but I like "easy to learn, hard to master" way better, I'll let the marketing department know ;) This game was also the first time I did any kind of enemy AI, I think that's why zombies are so popular in games because they're utterly stupid and relentless ;) And I totally agree with the game looking ugly. The quickly hand-drawn animations clash terribly with the photo-background and there's no visual interaction between them, no shadows, occlusion, etc; and the "ball" is still the first stand-in!

In terms of level design, you give the game too much credit: It's always the same level with the enemies and items in the same places. I intended to make it seem like there was more to it by keeping the glow of the ball small in the beginning and apparently it worked!

@vinterskog I completely forgot about the "ball" until you mentioned it because it literally is the same circle I started with. The perfect darkness outside glow was deliberate for a sense of claustrophobia.

An unexpected take on the theme, I'm not sure horror sport is going to be the next big thing, but worth exploring every option. The ball attack was quite a fun mechanic, atmospheric soundtrack. I see you came down more on the horror side than the sports one. The combination of realistic textures with cartoon sprites is a little bit strange. Looking forward to the post-mortem :)

@PhilStrahl It was certainly enough to make me wonder, demonstrating once again that showing only as much as it's absolutely necessary is a good policy to have. Also, I'm slightly biased because I wasn't joking when I said that your videos were the final straw that broke the proverbial camel's back and finally inspired me to take part in a game jam. I'm grateful and it might have affected my reception of your game. Though I'm sure my positivity is balanced out by your overly negative approach to your own creations (which is pretty much a standard approach of any art creator with high enough level of self-awareness). In any case, I had fun with your game and I can't wait for your video about it. Have a nice one, sir!

I tried your game and saw it was you Phil on my way here to comment. To me you respected the theme like a boss. It was fun playing especially with the grass and all reminding me of my garden. It took me some time to realize I was on a real soccer/football field and when I did I went straight for the goal.. big surprise haha. The controls are a bit clunky, it's hard to really control where you shooting the ball but hey, that's where the challenge comes from! The packs to increase stamina are a benediction, it's really pleasant when you find some.
Well done!

Pretty good game! One of the better ones I've played so far. You definitely did the theme justice. The sound and graphics are both above average but could use some work. Overall, you did a great job. Can't wait for the post-mortem! :D

Pretty fun game! I really liked the overall style of the game. The music in the background sounded really nice too.

Geil. Love the atmosphere man, super spooky. I also love the idea of using light as a weapon , can get some great stuff in 3d. Pretty compelling! If your not super busy have a look at my game , my first LD entry https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/spacescape

Nothing more to say except it looks, sounds and plays great!

Can't wait for the post-mortem :D

Splendid!

Hi there,
Do you think you can make a Mac build of your game? So that way I can play it from my mac!

@JackLeHamster Unfortunately not, because I don't have the Mac export module for GameMaker :(

As always you nail the atmosphere. Music and sound were great! The gameplay was also quite fun if slightly samey at times. I liked the graphics, but they seemed sorta mixed. There were some nicely animated characters, but they looked a little odd on the photo-realistic background. My only gripe was that I scored a goal just as the giant zombie came on screen, so I never got to interact with it :/.
Overall really fun idea and great execution :)!

I love that the only light source is the ball, makes for some tense moments. Neat little game!

I have been following your youtube content since an year now! And I can surely say that you are one hell of a motivator. This game right here, it really motivates me to keep on making games. Thanks a lot man! Cheers!

I enjoyed kicking the ball around, listening to your moans, and forgetting the game might have another objective than that ! Zombies were satisfying to kill, and I had a revelation after a minute or so that the goal was probably to... score a goal ! Which I did.

@PhilStrahl I know you must have better things to do but it would really make my day if you could give me your opinion on my entry. I'll ship you some coffee if that's what it takes !

Btw I started this jam watching your Keynote. LD wouldn't be the same without you. Keep it up ! :heart:

Well Done, @PhilStrahl!!! Never would have thought to combine the two haha. I love what you did with the audio. Also, I thought the background/character sprites clash a little, both are very good in their own right. Especially the environment, now that's some awesome texturing. Anyways, GREAT JOB :D

Those textures were the stuff of legend. The music too was enjoyable. Nice job!

Nice entry you made there, love the mood and the fun. I really enjoyed playing it, the mashup is funny and works well gameplay-wise. Also, thanks for the keynote :)

Looked at your past game jams. They were all good. This may be the best of the rest. Game is really enjoyable. I hope you expand this game. Thank you for the great keynote too. :thumbsup:

This game has top notch music and textures, especially for a compo entry! The glowing ball felt like a safe place and you didn't want to wander too far off into the darkness. I was sort of expecting the zombies to also attack the ball and maybe kick it in the general direction of the players goal. At first I was a bit confused that the "kick off" was not at centre pitch but at my own goal. (Does the stamina reset to 0 when you pick up a max stamina upgrade?)

I managed to break a lot of zombie legs and even score in the end coming in from the upper corner, just barely escaping the HUGE defender/goalie. That one was a lot scarier so I went all in on the winning kick. Luck or skill? Both? :D

All in all a really solid compo entry! From a fellow horror sport maker, a job well done!

@automatonvx Yeah, apparently I have a much better time with horror than with sports (also regarding game making) ;) And yeah: The "art" direction on Zoccer wasn't my finest hour...

@LemonBalmGames Sometimes I have a hard time accepting positive comments. It often feels like as the game's creator only I know how much is wrong with it and the only reason I am getting away with it is that nobody tried to break the game ;) But if you had some enjoyable minutes with it, well, then I can't take that away from you. Thank you again for playing and taking the time to comment!

@lo-x Thanks for playing and commenting! I'm glad that my background was neither too on the node nor too subtle with it being a grungy soccer field. I agree with the controls, they could've benefitted from some more tweaking, so I just littered the place with upgrades. You know, quality game design ;)

@Gonz0 Glad you liked the mood, Gonz0. I tried your game, very trippy. Will post a video of me playing it soon.

@hjalte You're right, the art styles don't match at all and hurt the game's visuals more than something more photorealistic would've done. And you didn't miss much with the giant goalie; I just scaled up one generic zombie to three times the size ;)

@aditya-shukla Thank you so much! Glad you found it inspiring because I am not too happy with it though ;)

@spacemonkey Thank you for playing! I just returned the favor and tried your game, but it was too hard for me to make it to the end, I'm afraid. But there'll be a video of my attempts soon!

@ratherjolly WHy thank you! But I agree with you that "the background and the sprites clash a little," as you wrote. Instead, I feel that they clash HORRIBLY! ;)

@jeplmr @aemiliu5 @nicksmaddog @jajo @pietro-ferrantelli Thanks you guys and gals for taking the time to play and rate my mixed bag of a game! :)

@mza Wow, thanks for digging through my archive! Personally, I like "Power, MT" best, but in terms of mechanics, "Zoccer" is the most acceptable jam game since my very first, "MagGunner."

@mashas Thank you for playing! I really never thought about the zombies actively seeking to kick the ball until someone mentioned it in the comments, that shows how much I care about soccer. ;) And let's say the reset upon getting a stamina upgrade is intentional (pssssst! Because it is definitely not!). I thought I had fixed this and the same issue with the max health upgrade, but apparently, I have to patch that again, thanks for reporting and may the horror sports genre thrive and prosper!

@PhilStrahl Thank you so much Phil ! It means a lot to me. I don't know how to thank you ... Actually I do know ! There is a super nice coffee roaster in my city. They started in 1864 and stayed a small familial shop. If you accept I'd be totally up for sending you some of their products ? Not for promotion or anything, I just know they make awesome coffee.

@SpaceMonkey Now *that's* an offer that I just cannot refuse -- handcrafted, Belgium-roasted coffee :smile: Thank you so much! If you're on Twitter, send me a direct message or shoot an eMail to my first name at pixelprophecy.com

That was fun! It reminded me of the final challenge in Organ Trail for reasons I couldn't quite put my finger on. (It's not just the zombie thing... Perhaps the zombie ai behavior?)

This is going to sound hyper-nitpicky and I'm sorry, but a lot of my feedback has already been covered by others and I don't want to repeat too much :)

I wandered away from the ball once and it was super weird. I didn't like that at all. I think I was expecting that when I got close to the powerup, which had a glow and was visible away from the ball, that I would get some of that glow on me, but I realize that is a silly thing to expect. :) This is not something I'd expect to be fixed (but I would be really happy if you did). Just sharing my moment of being weirded out by something.

I know it clearly says that it's a trail you have to blaze and that we are supposed to use the ball's glow radius to estimate our distance to the goal, but there was a moment near the beginning where the path stopped being straight, and at that moment, there were some weird features along the back wall that made me think for a moment that that might have already been the goal and the map was soccer-field shaped. I'd consider making the wall more boring there, and if people as easily confused by walls as I am are still confused, maybe putting an arrow on the ground letting them know that that's where the path turns and they should expect the path to turn. It's early enough that it would feel like an integrated tutorial to let you know how the game works, instead of some condescending hand-holdy design, I think.

I actually liked the clashing graphics style (though shadows to ground you would be nice). It reminded me of Rebuild 2, so you're hitting all the good zombie game memories I have :)

@monika Hey, thanks for playing! Never saw the relation to Organ Trail but now that you mentioned it I see it too because apparently, the AI is just "if player within sight, walk straight towards them."

And no worries about being super nitpicky, any feedback is welcome and super useful, no matter how minor!

I had never thought players would choose to abandon the ball, that's why I made it your only light source. Otherwise, I feared, players would ignore kicking the ball altogether and then face their first zombie without any means of attacking. So I find it very interesting that you went straight into the darkness because of the false promise of a glowing item.

I am glad that you picked up on the map being a soccer field that soon. I expected most people to figure that out when (if) they reach the middle circle or what's it called (I don't know much about soccer haha). ANd I think I get what you're saying, that the change in the glow radius was too subtle for you to tell whether you were on the right tracks. My "solution" to this would be a yellow glow on the edge of your screen in the direction of the goal, so that players would tend to go towards it, and have *that* now become stronger and more pronounced the closer you get...

And I am surprised that you didn't mind the cheap and clashing visuals for I utterly cannot. Oh, and thanks for pointing me towards Rebuild 2, I guess I'll have to procrastinate now a little bit.

I am pretty sure this is definitely 100% what soccer is like. 279 seconds to score. Took me a while to realise I didn't have to murder EVERY SINGLE ZOMBIE but, I mean, what else is this for? The zombie murder ball mechanic worked well, I was able to control it, never got frustrated. Can't wait to see the documentary about it now!

Really liked the game, nice job on the lighting! The sound effects and music were really nice too! Cool combination of genres, a few minor issues I found were: The text at the bottom can overlay and the zombie AI can sometimes freak out and just flip back and forth. The movement felt really nice though and liked the upgrades too!
Can't wait to see your documentary on the creation of it! :)

Hey, sorry it took so long. I had bookmarked your game forever ago (as you said in your video about my game) but my list of bookmarks got longer much faster than it got shorter :) Anyway, very interesting concept. The mood was really good. The graphics felt a bit awkward with the super sharp 8k or whatever it was grass, and the ms paint characters. Also, that was some huge grass, were they zombie bugs? LOL. Overall it was quite a good experience and that goal keeper was frightening.

282 seconds to find the goal! The game is simple, however it's funny, the graphics are very good, I like the field art and the light effects. The soundtrack is awesome, it creates the right atmosphere! The voice effects are very good too!
Maybe the final boss could be stronger, to create a final challenge before the end. Despite that it's an excellent work!

Very fun and polished game. Nice take on the theme! The art style is great, creating the right mood for the game. Good job!

Please, take a look at my game too: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/confessional

Nice genre combo! For a while I thought space was only for shooting, and was going to comment on that, but I should have read more carefully. That being said, the walking/dribbling speed could a bit faster to give more tension. :)
The field looks nice and post-apocalyptic! Was expecting the huge goal keeping to require a few more shots, but I am not going to complain. (was going ffffuuu.., then pew gone phew)

Random ideas:
- Have referees that try to stop you, but only when you hit zombies
- Multi-hit goalee
- Flaming ball powerup from gasoline :P

Good job! Cool game!

I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.

I hope you continue with the project.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape

@hexagore Thanks for playing despite your singing duties ;) And the documentary is in the works :)

@PUR3 Glad you liked it for what it is. In my upcoming code review of Zoccer I point out what's responsible for the zombies just flipping back and forth when they get stuck.

@Archimagus No worries about not getting to it sooner. I am already long past 20 ratings, so I am very happy. I agree that the "art"-style clashes terribly and that the goalkeeper was just a last minute scaling in the editor ;)

@mic_matrix91 Thank you for giving it a try. I thought,"well, the graphics suck but at least I can make the sound moody!" ;) The goalkeeper was just a stupid idea I could implement at almost zero effort, so I agree that I could make him/her a little more challenging.

@rodrigo-denubilaThanks for playing! Will try your too, already read your little making-of and I am curious how you got the decals work in Unity. Something nice from the Asset Store? ;)

@Joror Thanks for playing and your random ideas. In early stages I wanted that when you stay too close to the ball it would try to eat you, so the refrees would make perfect sense in that twisted universe ;)

@cristiano.m.garcia Thanks, Cristiano. I will probably leave it like it is but I'll check out your game! :)

@philstrahl you made a compo, so the game is very good as it is at the moment!

Can I ask you a question about the music? I know you from a little time ( if I remember well, is because of a your casual video on YouTube, that I heard for Ludum Dare for the first time, about 3 months ago! ) so I don't know if you have spoken about your tools in your videos.. however can I ask you what tool do you use for the music creation? Thanks in advantage!

@mic_matrix91 Hey Mic. I don't think I've explicitly said what I use for making my music. For the eerie synthscape of _Zoccer_ I used [Propellerheads Reason](https://www.propellerheads.se/en/reason) with the [Layers rack extension](https://www.propellerheads.se/en/reason/rack-extensions/layers) :)

Hey man great game, for the purpose of possibly helping in your next jam and knowing you only had a small amount of time here is some constructive criticism. (Also, I love your YouTube channel)

The game was easy off the start, that combined with constant upgrades to HP and stamina made it only get easier. I feel like if upgrades are implemented enemy's also need to scale.

You could walk faster then the zombies, so stamina never seemed important even if you ran out. You can always slowly walk away and regen without any negative.

A little confusing, I wasn't sure my goal as the level was so dark. I wasn't sure if it was waves or if I was looking for something. Obviously when I got to the goal, I then realized the goal.

The sound was amazing, mood was cool, love your work and videos.

Some bugs i'm sure you already noticed or have been told about:
Zombies spawn outside level often
HP bar when max HP is raised doesn't reflect a percentage, I could take 15+ hits before the HP bar showed any damage.

Keep up the great work!

@eLICIT1990 Thanks for playing and your criticism. Those are all fair points you brought up. I didn't want to make the game really hard and reward exploration so that's why the zombies only take one hit and the item drop rate is fairly high.

But I agree that I could have tweaked a little more the different walking/running speeds and the stamina drain/recovery rate for sure. Also, I had no time for explanations, so the tagline "The Goal is the Goal" on the title screen was the only thing I could offer in terms of player guidance ;)

Regarding the bugs: Zombies shouldn't spawn at runtime at all, they are manually placed within the level. But the way they handle getting stuck is... improvable ;) As for the health/stamina bars: DAMN! Thanks for reporting.

And thanks for taking the time for your detailed feedback!