Hermenegildo by Johnsensei

[raw]
made by Johnsensei for LD 43 (JAM)

HERMENEGILDO is a top down 2D dungeon crawler created for the Ludum Dare 43 game jam. The theme of the jam was “Sacrifices must be made.” The game works in the opposite of traditional games where upgrades occur as the game progresses. In HERMENEGILDO, the player starts out fully upgraded and must sacrifice one upgrade at each step of game progression.

Team

John Gale - Programmer, Narrative

Michael Morrell - Music, Initial Idea

John Hellrung - Level Designer

Tools

RPG Maker MV - main game engine and art assets

Photo of San Hermenegildo from Wikipedia: By Francisco Herrera the Younger - [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=259293

Orange HUD plugin by HUDell: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/orange-hud.47186/ http://hudell.com/blog/mv-plugin-orange-hud/

Keep Title Music Plugin by pareidolon: https://rpgmaker.net/engines/rmmv/utilities/109/

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Ratings

Overall 422th 3.533⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Fun 594th 3.167⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 531th 3.133⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Theme 154th 4.033⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Audio 126th 3.821⭐ 16🧑‍⚖️
Humor 154th 3.656⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Mood 269th 3.633⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Johnsensei
03. Dec 2018 · 18:19 UTC
Pushed an update that:
1. Allows the player to skip the beginning tutorial and narrative sequence.
2. Adjusts the Max HP down to 100 for better game balance.
🎤 Johnsensei
03. Dec 2018 · 18:20 UTC
Note on the audio rating, the music is 100% original. The sound effects are included with RPG Maker MV.
🎤 Johnsensei
03. Dec 2018 · 18:22 UTC
For anyone familiar with RPG Maker MV, I'm having trouble understanding the Terrax Lighting plugin. Or my understanding is the map can have the effect or it can't. There is no way to turn the effect on and off on a single map in an event script. Like in our game when the player chooses to sacrifice the glasses and then the world turns dark.
🎤 Johnsensei
03. Dec 2018 · 18:26 UTC
Also in RPG Maker MV, I wanted to transfer the player to a random dungeon each time, which I figured out how to do. But I couldn't figure out an efficient way to NOT transfer the player to the same random dungeon within a single playthrough. For example, there are three dungeons. So generate a random number 1-3. Let's say it generates 2, so transfer the player to dungeon 2. This makes sense. But how do I repeat that process and say "Generate a random number 1-3 and exclude 2." or "Generate a random number of 1 OR 3." I could use a lot of switches and conditional branches, but it'd be a nightmare of complexity. Any insight appreciated.
🎤 Johnsensei
03. Dec 2018 · 19:08 UTC
Well folks, there are about 7 hours left in the jam as of this writing, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to tap out and get back to work and the real world. This is my second Ludum Dare and the first collaborating on a team, which has been fun. It's thanks to the team we have some awesome music (probably my favorite part) and actual levels to make a game loop with. I really do need some new games to play, so looking forward to checking out other games made in the jam, especially those made by fellow Nash Game Dev members.

As with any game, there are still a bunch of things we wanted to do but didn't get to. There are about six actually:
1. Lantern effect when glasses are sacrificed.
2. Teleport to a random dungeon so that each playthrough is unique.
3. Custom windows and fonts.
4. Custom Game Over artwork.
5. Different facial expressions for character dialogue.
6. Be able to choose any piece of equipment to sacrifice in any order. This is the big one. It would require three more dungeons, and if my calculations are correct, around 6 to the sixth power variations in the character art.

But we achieved what we set out to do: make a complete game loop based on the theme by the end of the jam and hone our skills in doing so. Well done on that. See you all at Global Game Jam 2019.
Trifectuh
04. Dec 2018 · 02:51 UTC
Nice work! The music and art are great. Some tighter more "puzzly" challenge levels between the larger ones could be a lot of fun if you plan to keep working on the game at all.
🎤 Johnsensei
04. Dec 2018 · 03:02 UTC
Thanks for the feedback @trifectuh - we can't claim anything on the artwork. It was all created with the assets in RPG Maker MV.
JohnnyGinard
04. Dec 2018 · 18:07 UTC
Awesome, great work! :smile: :top:
zaicuch
05. Dec 2018 · 04:17 UTC
I really liked the jokes haha, really good game!
zaicuch
05. Dec 2018 · 04:17 UTC
I really liked the jokes haha, really good game!
guine
06. Dec 2018 · 02:13 UTC
Awesome! Good job, friends!
JLV
06. Dec 2018 · 02:27 UTC
Great dungeon crawler / RPG game. The introduction is absolutely brilliant, with the tutorial leading step by step to the true nature of the game, with a few jokes here and there.

Pros :
- Really nice writing : my main motivation throughout the game was to go forward to keep enjoying the story
- Thematically adequate take on the genre
- Using RPG Maker makes for a really polished experience (+ great use of included graphics)
- Great audio

Cons :
- Gameplay was a bit dull (still enjoyable thanks to the level design, but I wish there were some more things to do), but that's something I can't really criticize, as I've never been good at that sort of thing either.

All in all, excellent work !
arnau
06. Dec 2018 · 09:36 UTC
Nice music you have. Each part of the gear is defined very well to understand what you are sacrificing for the levels.
Papaver
17. Dec 2018 · 19:17 UTC
Great entry! I enjoyed playing - mainly for the story, the gameplay was not that challenging.
Great introduction, good music and fun storyline. Well done! :smiley: