Hiyek's Ludum Dare 40 Submission - Swami Shooter PT by Hiyek
My swami shooter prototype for Ludum Dare 40! The concept is that you’re a mind-reader who regains his thought power (ammo) by reading people’s minds. The more bad thoughts you get in your head, the tougher the enemies get, and the more you slow down due to emotional baggage. I intend to continue working on this after the jam and animating environment/music/post-processing changes to make it more distorted as you gain bad thoughts. The only way to make it better is to share in thoughts of love by reading the minds of positive people :)
This was my very first game jam and I had so much fun working with this theme, as well as meeting some amazing people (via Twitch and the LDJam blog); Although I went at it solo, I never felt alone in this for one minute.
Unfortunately, I'm uploading a bit earlier than expected, so it's all placeholder right now (see the 'Notes' section of the game for more information), but I plan to continue working on this toward a full release, as I completely fell in love with this concept! Another team needs music for their submission and I volunteered to compose a couple of themes for them! I figured it would be better to help others make their project a little more special than throw some glitter on this turd of mine lol :D
I definitely made some first-timer mistakes, such as not sleeping for the first 2 days, and prioritizing the wrong parts of my game, but all-in-all, this was an utter blast to be a part of! I look forward to participating in as many LD jams as possible in the future and can't wait to meet more of you wonderful people <3
| HTML5 (web) | https://itch.io/embed-upload/684638?color=ffffff |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/hiyeks-ludum-dare-40-submission-swami-shooter-pt |
Ratings
| Overall | 1123th | 2.529⭐ | 19🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1078th | 2.5⭐ | 19🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1005th | 2.611⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 916th | 2.917⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1037th | 2.406⭐ | 18🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 11🗳️ | 34🗨️ |
Does this count as a submission? Did I put it in the right place?
I read your notes, you seem to have a good grasp on what was lacking due to the time constraints. Obviously having coloured squares as enemies/NPC gives the game a very prototype-feel. My own pet peeve I often run into in jam games is the scaling inconsistencies of art assets. You have very a zoomed-in background, but a *relatively* high-definition main character. Is it me or has that one been scaled x1.5 or close to it? It looks a little deformed.
The enemies spawning at the top just clustered up on that ledge and remainder there. I didn't need to worry about them at all. I also didn't get hear sounds, but the page allows me to vote for audio so I am not sure whether the sounds simply didn't play.
Overall, you've finished a playable game for your first jam, so congrats! I hope my comments were helpful. Good luck on its future development. :smile:
My main concern was just getting something out there for my first jam, so in that regard, I'm proud of myself for accomplishing that goal as well as getting music done for the other group in the last 3 hours of LD! O.o However, quality-wise I know I can do much better, and this weekend was just a good jump off point to get started on development (hence, naming it "PT") ;D
Edit: I actually already played @EnchaeC 's game, Viral Arena, and you guys should give it a go! It's one of my favorites of the few games I've tried! <3
Edit2: Oh and the extra spawner up top was added for a wee little bit extra element of strategy. The circling around stops working after a while because the red squares on the street will keep adding up to a wall of death with enough negative thought RNG. So if you don't take care of the ones up top, and need a new escape route, they become a sort-of feeding pit :P
You mention mistakes. To me a big part of the Ludum is about confronting your limits and growing from it. It's great fun leveraging all the things you've learned in your next game.
Even if the game didn't end up where you wanted grab that glitter anyway, you might surprise yourself.
Thematically, the game is a pretty good fit, both from a "more enemies mean more obstacles to avoid" and a "more bad thoughts mean having a harder time" interpretation.
The presentation suffers a bit from the placeholder graphics for enemies and humans. That being said, the graphics are clear and functional, and the character design for the main character is quite nice. Fully realized art for the remaining characters would improve the mood. Your idea of having the art change depending on the balance between the amount of good and bad thoughts absorbed, is intriguing, and would also clearly communicate this state to the player.
The gameplay is simple, but functional. Adding "roaming" people to feed from would be a nice addition, and would also open up additional game play possibilities (for instance, defending the people from the evil spirits). Adding a layer of context to the thoughts could also be an interesting addition, e.g. a small procedural text instead of directly specifying that a thought is good or bad.
As you mention in your notes, one of the biggest challenges with participating in a game jam for the first time, is prioritizing your time (and realizing that sleep is usually necessary). You've managed to finish a game with a complete set of mechanics, which is an achievement, even if the game was not as fully realized as you imagined!
>On thoughts I shall feed,
>to release the enemies,
>to their deserved rest.
And the difficulty of enemies should increase with time, not be influenced by what thoughts you read.