Keep Shoveling by Twaldigas
Keep Shoveling is the first video game I made together with a friend, @Huiripu. Your character is a locomotive driver in the wild west. Beside keeping the locomitve running, he has to defend the train against bandits.
We used the Ludum Dare 39 Game Jam and the theme Running Out of Power as an opportunity to develop our very first video game together. It was fun and we were able to learn alot.
The game was developed with the Godot Engine. Sounds and text font was downloaded by different sources. Textures was all made by ourselfs.
Thank you for give it a try. We would be happy about your feedback and appreciate that you take the time to try it.
- Download on itch.io: https://twaldigas.itch.io/keep-shoveling
- Source Code: https://github.com/Twaldigas/ludum-dare-39
Controls - WASD or arrow keys for moving - SPACE to shovel coal in the locomotive and to shoot on top of the locomotive - Jumping and shooting are only enabled on top of the locomotive
| Windows | https://twaldigas.itch.io/keep-shoveling |
| Linux | https://twaldigas.itch.io/keep-shoveling |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/keep-shoveling |
Ratings
| Overall | 350th | 3.476⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 225th | 3.476⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 241th | 3.381⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 109th | 4⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 406th | 3.571⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 173th | 3.15⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 154th | 3.727⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 18🗳️ | 11🗨️ |
Thank you so much for taking the time to play it and leave feedback. We really appreciate it.
The idea about bandits falling from the train is really cool. We will keep it in mind, if we work an a better version of the game. Also the graphics.
Regarding the scope: We had the idea to add more different bandits but hasn't the time to work this out. For example: A bandit that throws TNT or somethigng like that.
I will leave a link to our own game, so you can check it out as well:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/blackout-4
That the character get stuck at the ladder is of cource a bug and I thought I had finally fixed it. I am sorry it still exists. I will take a look into it and check at which positions the bug happens. Thank you for letting us know.
remined me of who dares win
I think the grayscale visuals are cool and largely participate to the general mood, but in this case you should probably use something else than color for UI elements. For example shape: smaller hearts, or skulls instead of white hearts when you lose hp would be more readable. For the energy level, you could use the amount of smoke instead of a gauge. The color contrast is a very good fit for highlighting gameplay elements though (like you already do for the bullets).
Hope that helps. Good luck for the future!
The down and up on the ladder was faster, first. But we found it does not fit together with the walking speed of the character. So we made it slower. But yes, if it would be faster, you could beat more bandits.
Regarding the energy bar and other symbols: Link the amount of energy left to the amount of smoke coming from the locomotive is a great idea and could replace the bar. If we do a better version of the game, we will keep this in mind.
The controls could use a bit of work: they felt a bit stiff, and the jump could probably use a dedicated key (kept jumping off the ladder). Overall I feel a lot of potential, though.
Cute concept, trying to maintain the balance between shoveling and shooting. You picked some nice sounds, and I thought you did a good job on the graphics. I kinda like western themes, so this one was pretty appealing.
Could use some bears, for sure.
We didn't wanted to use too many keys to control the character. But we know what you mean. The thing is: You don't have to keep pressing the up Button to climb the ladder. Just press it once and the whole climbing will be done.
Yes, the balance between shooting and shoveling isn't perfect. We had need more time to find a balance and a solution how to organize the waves of enemies. But we will keep that in mind when we do a better version.
Some particle effects and the graphics would have been PERFECT.
Great all round LD entry. Quite surprised, it has got so little ratings and feedback
Very nice job! The art style (one like old black-white movie) fits perfectly
**overall comments** It was pretty cool. Really awesome and unique idea. Gameplay is very simple and straight forward (though i'd prefer jumping on space and shooting / shoveling on something else) but other than that, it's awesome. Works well and is pretty fun to play. I liked the idea and theme implementation the most personally. Well done! The game was nicely balanced, starting out easy and getting harder as time goes on. Very enjoyable.
**comments on improvement** more enemy types would add a nice feel. if it's just the same thing just getting harder as time goes on, it gets very repetitive. So some variation would be a nice feel. Maybe having to set out flames or something like that? just to add a bit more gameplay variety.
Yes, the bullets seems to be too small. We already got similar feedback.
Made animations that fits the walking and shooting at the same time was too diffucult and time consuming for us. But it is defenitely a point we will look into if we do a better version of the game.
More enemy types are a great idea and they are only missing because of the short time span. One idea I aldready had was a bandit hat throws TNT or another one that throws barrels like in the old Lucky Luke games.
Wow, really enjoyed your game, well done! Super simple mechanics, and still really addictive to play. Perfect combination for a game jam game. The art style and graphics fit perfectly. Perhaps some Wild West music in the background?
I'd really love to have a leaderboard. That would motivate me to play more and measure myself with other players.
One thing that you might want to consider: I wished I could stop mid-ladder. Or at least switch direction mid-ladder. Sometimes there was a bandit very close and he shot during my way up the ladder and killed me when I reached the top.
Yes, a online leader board would be great. This is jsut something I never did before. But maybe I will tackle this in the next game jam.
First it was planned that you can move up and down on the ladder. The implementation of this behavior was really bad and error-prone. So I refactored it and in the end the current behavior was the result. With more time I would add it in a improved version of the game.
I like the overall graphics and the great music and sounds.
Maybe you should expand it with more things to do, like oil the "wheels", uncork the flue and maybe something related to the engin (like fix it).
I see potential in this! Good work! :)
You mean more things that affects the energy? A really great idea! Thank you for sharing. We will think about it.