THE ARTIFACT IS A LIE! I tried three times and could not find it :D

Finished on the first try but the pressure was definitely here!
Didn't realized that the exit was the starting point but I made it anyway :)

I was impressed with the use of what seemed to be randomly generated levels, which meant I could play it multiple times (which I did).

Cool game, can be quite short depending on which ways you go. Might be nice to see some different enemy types

Cool game, can be quite short depending on which ways you go. Might be nice to see some different enemy types

Arg! I got the artifact but didn't realize I had to get OUT too, so I was swarmed by all the enemies that were aggro. Great work for 48 hours. I love the music, the balance, and the play overall.

Nice game! I liked the music, though it wasn't too fitting. Proc-gen was good, I managed to find the artifact twice, but the first time I was surrounded and out of energy.. It almost seemed that the artifact was in the last explored room for some reason... Or it's just my luck.

Like the VA. I think for a simple concept like this working on more juice is a good idea. Maybe some screen shake, visual effects etc. to give the game a bit more.

Music was nice, but I didn't feel it was appropriate for the tone of the game though.

@swifttech, it is there ;) just just didn't go far enough from the starting point.

@manafest, yes the levels are procedurally generated

@wevel, more enemies, more map tiles, & better sprites for player/enemies were all on my wish list :( Code was setup to handle it.

@agecaf, thanks. the Proc-gen is what I probably spent the most time on.. Making sure it would always build a solvable labyrinth. The whole last explored is probably 2 things -> the proc-gen puts it in the 'farthest' node from the starting spot (or one of the 'farthest' in a tie) and why would you keep exploring after finding it?

Nice. I liked the way the enemies recoiled when you shot them (though they weren't super threatening - maybe they could have been a little faster?), and I liked the music. Good job. :)

Wow, I like it! It reminds me of RTB (Real-time Battle) and I love that. Well done. Improvement: harder enemies! or different types, that will work too. A faster overall pace will do the trick.

Not too sure what to say, I got the artefact and completed it. Pretty fun, although getting lost in games is my pet hate so its probably not the game for me. Aside from more visual appeal, perhaps more variation in the shapes of rooms would have been nice, maybe a bit of needing to find keys to get through locked doors etc or other things to help add variety, wasn't sure if their was a bit of a stealth thing going on with the enemies turning to face you, but something like that would be fun too. Nice

A well balanced maze game, fun to play. One thing I'd recommend - these games are usually pretty easy to beat if you do the follow-the-left-wall trick - but you can design around that by sticking the artefact in a central room and make sure you have a few loops in your maze. Really good job though!

This is a really fun game! I feel like you kind of have to remember where you came from, though. I had to backtrack a lot, as well. I also think that there also is too little pressure around the fact that you can run out of power. I know it sounds that I'm being really negative, but I loved this game, and just thought I should point out what I thought could be improved. In reality, none of these problems are nearly as big as I made them out to be. Now because I feel like a critical jerk, I'm gonna list what I liked about the game: Somehow the shooting seemed much more satisfying than other Ludum Dare games I've tried so far, and physics simulations really added to the experience without being obtrusive, another thing I've noticed in other Ludum Dare games. Overall, epic job!

A fun maze game with some simpler graphic but the game is fun enough that that does not bother

@ysty, thanks. I considered making them faster, but given that I made the game and couldn't always complete the missions, I figured it was at a descent difficulty level. I wanted to make some more enemy types but didn't end up with enough time.

@exr, more enemy types was on my wish list, code already accounted for it, I just didn't have time to get them made.

@automatonvx, keys and locked doors were on my wishlist of things that I ran out of time for. Better graphics were also. The enemies turning slowly wasn't a stealththing persay, I just had a limited turn rate for them and the would only move forward. so they would turn until almost facing the correct way.

@fazz, thanks for the feed back. You are correct, the prod-gen does use a maze alogrythin so the 'follow the left' does work. The loops and center room would have made some of my other prod-gen much harder (locked doors and keys) as I couldn't just use a tree to ID what was behind what door.

@speedysloth99, Thanks for the feedback! Sounds like you played carefully instead of a rush forward way (same as me). If so, energy management isn't much of an issue. If you don't get hit & don't miss, there is enough energy to kill ~49 enemies. I believe the max number of enemies is 72 with the current generation code. but that is really unlikely. I suspect that with the exception of really rare generations, there is enough energy to kill all the enemies (if not hit/no misses). As for the physics, the player, bullets, and enemies are all physics objects.

The artifact was a lie! Haha, searched all over several times and never found it. I guess I just got unlucky(or I suck with mazes). Fun little game, no complaints.

@oxrock, The artifact is there :) I am very confident with my prod-gen... so...

The shooting and enemy mechanics were really cool, great job!

Found it. But no reward... :-(
Keep moving forward.

@kthulhu1947, not quite sure what you mean. Are you saying that the feedback for picking up the artifact was insufficient?

Good job, you can improve the visuals and maybe generate the maze procedurally.

Huh, idk why but I found the artifact almost immediately. Like my first guesses were correct. An awesome game none the less, love the procedural generation and despite the lacking visuals, you should be very proud for producing a fully functioning game with AAA levels of voice acting ;)

The sounds are good, the gamepaly is simple but good, the graphics are simplistic, i liked it in the overrall. I found the artefact on the first try immediatly but maybe i have just been lucky

@sgt3, Thanks. The map is procedurally generated.

@madalaski, Thanks. I suspect the AAA voice acting is a joke... that or I have a talent that I didn't know about :) The voice acting part was to make sure the 'need to get back to the start' was clear. I figured that the 'mission' details wouldn't get read by everyone and picking up the artifact needed some player feedback. Was a good place to put in the 'now get back to the start' message.

@gurvan, Thanks! If you are careful, there shouldn't be any problems finding the artifact (see prior comment by me regarding the energy level and number of enemies).

As others have pointed out, more room variation and improved graphics would be nice. Positive points for procedural generated map. The style of tanks used in http://diep.io/ would work well with your game.

Interesting game :)
Can't rate yet because I didn't publish, but i'll try to remember me to do it later :)
I agree with the room variation, maybe giving a way to avoid enemies vision in some of them could be nice. I want to point out the fact that playing on the pad is difficult (but normal), almost because of the buttons, having wasd available wouldn't be too much :P

@goncalomb, thanks for the feedback. Better graphics and room variations were on my list of things that were planned for but didn't happen (in fact the code already can handle room variations, I just didn't get time to make them.)

@number6406, thanks for the feedback. WASD actually work and are what are in the instructions on the loading page.

The game was a bit simplistic but it was still effective. The bg track was great and created a nice mood. The visuals could have been improved but at least the level is randomly generated. Could have maybe been a bit harder but nice game anyways.

@thorneto, thank you for the feedback.

Not bad for programmer art! I learned at some point that I could just walk past the enemies and not shoot them but then was punished by their jump attacks, quite surprising! My #1 gripe is with how loud the sound effects were. That's why I didn't want to shoot anymore. My rule of thumb is always make sure that they are slightly less quiet than the music (although that doesn't always apply).

Good and complete entry, congratz! The sound effect is imho too loud compared to the music. I would polish more the menu, it does not represent the quality of the game. Regarding graphics, you could assume something with basic shapes, like very clean lines and circles, here you're a bit in between, with some tiles for the walls not very consistent with the player and enemies style. I'm also a programmer and always have issue with graphics part :wink: As a bonus, you may add some particle effects (unity FTW!), it would make the game more dynamic and the overall feeling better! Keep up the good work :rocket:

@kalibrated, thanks for the feedback. That is interesting on the SFX vs music. Personally I like the music to be much quieter then the sound effects, so they are clear and registerable over the music as they are part of the game loop/feedback, while music is not or only slightly (like a change of music in a combat situation). Sounds like a volume slider for music/SFX would be the best thing to do, so that people can set the relative values to their liking.

@nidup, thanks for the feedback. the player/enemy art was placeholder art so I could work on the programming. I ran out of time and never managed to replace it. I didn't think that having the walls being 'simple' lines would be better... but I think you are correct, that may have made the art more consistent.

The fact that the map was random was nice. The combat with the enemies seems a little underwhelming, it might be nice if there were powerups or other additional elements. It was a pretty solid use of the theme, though! I would have the potential to be really cool if you had more time.

The procedural generation is a nice touch, it can't have been easy to implement. I would have liked to see more elements of the levels to make better use of the procedural generation but I understand time is always the constraint.

I liked that you didn't go overboard with the power mechanic - so many games just made the power aspect basically a timer and then it just became a mad thoughtless dash to do the next thing, which genuinely felt worse for their games than better.

I found that you could edge away from a lot of enemies without being hurt, but there were still times where you *would* get hurt. That was a nice balance. Though overall it was probably too easy.

Would have wanted a bit more than absolutely random wandering around to find the goal, some kind of clue or pointer but not dead obvious would have been great. Or perhaps just pick one default ending point but leading to that point would be procedural - like how Spelunky does it - you always go down, but how you get down would be varied.

Good, considered, if not really all that mind-blowing :) Good back-to-the-basics.

@jeremy-ryan, Thank you for the feedback.

@tuism, Thank you for the feedback. I did spend much more time on the proc-gen then I had hopped. Everything (start, artifact, layout, enemies) are all placed procedurally, code even was written to handle multiple enemy types and tiles. You can also look at my [post mortem](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/artifact-dive/artifact-dive-post-mortem) for some details on what happened with my time.

You have a good start here. If you added some simple sprites and animations you would have a more complete game. Nice work.

I like the game, it's a challenge to play with a laptop touchpad though. :smile: The music loop is nice but the graphics are a bit too simple.

*Sorry for the doublepost, accidentially clicked "Publish" twice.*

The music is nice, but I felt the sound balance was a bit off, I think I actually jumped slightly when I first got attacked (wasn't expecting the charge). I finished it very quickly, so maybe could have added some more variety in the map?

EDIT: Just checked your post mortem, looks like you already had considered the additional content for the level, as well as some cool other features, it's a shame you didn't get chance to implement it all

Hey! Great game! I read your postmortem and it seems you got covered what could be improved. In a quick addendum, I'd say the gameplay is simple, but effective. Adding more mechanics would be very nice.

Solid game. Nice calm music. The voice-over once you get the artifact is cool. Art could be a bit more "advanced", but I know it's not easy in such a little time (I'm not good at it either :shrug:).

It's very jarring how the enemies start charging you. I wish there was some sort of visual cue right before they did that, like flashing or shaking.

90 MB is the largest compo entry download so far and then it was just the sources and dependencies.

The web version does not work for me, lately the unity web games all tell they cannot allocate enough memory which is a ridiculous error since I have plenty of memory in all parts of this machine.

OK so I turned it off and on again, this always helps with computer problems!

Nice music and sound effects (SFXR?) and the gameplay nice simple and clear. The text is a little samll and text in a game is generally not the best way to convey story, objectives or any deeper meaning. A little graphical tutorial, maybe just a still image with the shooting circle and one enemy circle and the artifact would have been enough to get the point across. On the other hand you don't use text excessively, so it is not that bad.

The game was short, I got it on my second try. This is fine, I myself have this time created a very short game because I was focussing on graphics but in your case the graphics are not that nuanced :-)

Overall this is still a solid game, good job, keep up the good work!

@sanojian, Thanks for the feedback. Yes I agree on the sprites/graphics.

@gagapete, Thanks for the feedback. I did try that once and yah... it is hard with a touch pad.

@blaster391, Thanks for the feedback. You are not the first to comment on the level difference between the music and SFXs. I think my perference is different the the norm. So thanks for that feedback.

@aaforcebox, Thanks for the feedback. I didn't want to many mechanics, but one or two might have been nice.

@smbe19, Thanks for the feedback.

@iamsodarncool, Thanks for the feedback. I agree some better player feedback on the charges would have been nice.

@gonutz, Thanks for the feedback. Sorry about the download confuzion, that was for the Compo requirement for having the source provided. The size is probably my audio tracks, which were recorded in an uncompressed format (Unity formats them for export). I attempted some native builds (but they had some issues). The native builds were about half that size (including the Unity executiable)

You've got a nice game there.

Graphics looked like place holder, but your music was very good!
And you made good use of the theme.

Perhaps a bit of polish to make it complete. I'm sure It would make a fun game to play for more people and not be dismissed instantly.

I'm impressed you got procedural generated levels working! That's always tricky. A bit of variation in the layouts would be good.

Nice work!

Hey ! It's a pretty simple game, with a nice Binding of Isaac feel to it :)

I found the Artifact on my first run and died dumbly, got it on the second run though :D

Having more time, I think trying to improve the graphics would have been the best use of your time, then maybe adding a second type of ennemy.

Level generation was perfect, and the game is fast enough to allow multiple runs

After I read that shots took away power I mostly conserved ammo and just tried to run past everyone. Luckily I got the artifact early on and I felt like I had to freedom to shoot again. Only on 2nd playthrough did I see that you don't just plain die from shooting too much. No complaints here, just some thoughts that went through my mind as I was playing.

Nice little game. You made me jump when the bad guy suddenly jump on me. Cool audio. A little repetitive. For international users please use arrows instead of / in addition to AWSD. Good work.

@GistNoesis, good point about different keyboard layouts. It happens that arrow keys should work for the game.

double post

double post

Nice job! :)

First of all, the voice over when finding the artifact was a nice touch.

Then, the art direction is simple but effective, it's correct enough for the game to be enjoyable and to understand what's going on.
The music and sound effects are nice. I found the music spot on for this kind of game.

The game played smoothly, there is feedback from being hurt / hurting a mob. Increasing a bit the energy drop could be nice. I had no problem with the controls.

A radar (activated at the cost of energy with a key press) letting you see a dot or a vague "oriented arc" at the general direction of the item during one second (or any duration you want / like^^) could be a way to un-frustrate players with the randomly-generated-maze concept while keeping the searching aspect. Making it less likely to let your player die just by lack of luck or waddling around dead-end to dead-end. (just my 2 Cents after reading your "post-mortem" post^^)
This being said, since there is no energy drop by walking, I found it to be balanced enough.

Nice and simple entry, I enjoyed it! It's rare to find a roguelike inspired entry in LD because of the difficulty of procedural generation, so I'm glad I found this game.

Even though the game might seem simple, I think the foundation for a good game has already been laid down. Switch up the graphics, code in a combat system, and I think you're pretty much set.

@ogma, Thanks for the feedback!

@jusw85, Thanks for the feedback!

I am sorry, but I must leave negative comment. First of all: I like your procedural generator, if you tune up your game it could recive better score.

- \+ Procedural generated labirint
- \+ Soundtrack


- \- I don't like your graphics, it's simple ugly, you should try paint some person or if player is ball, some better textures for ball.

- \- No ground texture, if you put there some simple floor or grass it could look much better

- ? I try hard, but I can't find artifact.

@hadik, thanks for the feedback. Graphics were basically all placeholders that I didn't have time to replace. Artifact is always there, sorry you had trouble finding it :(

The labyrinth stays unknown as it procedurally generated with works well.
The game could be greatly improved with some better graphics but well done :thumbsup:

@michaeltwg, thanks for the feedback!

That was fun. Managed to find the artifact and escape on my second try. Once I realized power was not going down over time and I could take my time doing things, the pressure was lessened, but I didn't make as many stupid mistakes and was able to survive. Like the music. Randomly generated levels are good for replayability, although there's not much interesting going on in the rooms, so it didn't cause interesting choices (just "should I always turn right or always turn left?", and then depth-first search the whole map), maybe something slightly more interesting to the level design would be good (something like teleporters which makes it non-trivial to just brute force search the map).

@jimbly, thanks for the feedback.

The game seems to be based on luck a lot. The first time, I found the artifact after shooting through nearly all the maze, but died in the artifact room.

Tried the postjam version after to get some feeling of progression, and I must say, it looks much nicer. Sadly, it actually felt much harder to survive too, especially without the option to see into next rooms, while the enemies apparently could see me and fire at me through the door on even change room and ram me in the door just when I was about to enter.

Nice idea, I enjoyed playing it, but some balancing and further polishing would certainly help.

@eremiell, thanks for the feedback.

I guess there is some luck via the map layout and the choices you take. Number of enemies per room is based on how far the room is from the start point, so yes, there is some RNG in how many enemies per room.

As for the post jam version, I agree, I need to update it so the enemies don't attack/see through the doors.

Finished on my second run! It reminded me of the dungeons from Recettear, i.e. it was a fun experience!
The only thing I'd like added is some chance of getting back your health and/or upgrading your weapon (three-way bullet or just simply a larger stronger single bullet). Maybe enemies could leave powerups?

Excellent compo game though, thank you!

Good start! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk50HLqX0cU