Jared's Fresh Start by DrCheetos
This is a game about Jared's fresh start. Kill zombies and find the C4 to open the road into the city.

Upgrade guns to deal more damage !

(If you add a second player and have no controllers you won't be able to do anything with him.)
| Youtube | https://takayamushi.itch.io/my-little-zombie-town |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/jareds-fresh-start |
Ratings
| Overall | 333th | 3.654⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 164th | 3.788⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1058th | 2.375⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 880th | 2.84⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 677th | 2.455⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 489th | 3.417⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 27🗳️ | 20🗨️ |
The entry felt good, it was somewhat well balanced. The lighting in tutorial level was per vertex (if it was done per pixel, it would look much better), but within the actual game it looked quite fine. I was able to fight hordes quite easily when all the weapons were around.
I didn't realize there is update menu though until I read the comments here (did I miss that part in tutorial or it isn't said anywhere?).
Keep up the good work!
Well done!
Very nice ^^
Kinda wanna make a lil zombie game now xD
It's really well made, the only things I would point out is that it can be a lil hard to see what gun you're picking up and that you can't swap between guns somehow.
If we are using only one gun at a time, maybe drop the one currently in use after a new pick up?
Also encountered a bug, where after closing the upgrade menu, all currently spawned enemies freezed.
They unfreezed when I opened the upgrade menu again.
So only new zombie hordes could really harm me.
There's a lot of glitches though:
- When I go to start the tutorial, I'm given the option of using a keyboard or a controller. I click "Keyboard", and nothing happens. I click "Controller", and the game starts, but keyboard controls still work. Which is fortunate, because I don't have a controller that connects to my laptop!
- Not exactly a glitch, but I, like a couple of other reviewers, didn't know how to open the weapon upgrade screen. That needs to go in the tutorial. I also didn't know what I was actually supposed to do with the C4 once I found it, so I was left just wandering around getting ambushed by zombie hordes while my weapon supplies dwindled. It could use a spotlight or something to highlight wherever it is you're supposed to go with it.
- When I quit back to the main menu, the "You died!" menu was laid over the top of it.
I'm guessing you just didn't have enough time to playtest and find those. Don't worry, I know that feeling :sweat_smile: Good entry overall, it just needs a bit of fixing and polishing up.
The concept is decent enough though I wouldn't exactly call it, fitting the theme or pushing new boundaries.
The lack of sounds is a bit jarring and the lack of fitting sounds or real sense of punch with the weapons is a bit of a let down.
I wish the character moved a bit faster or there was some sort of goal in the game or some sense of difficulty because the game seems a bit too easy for my liking.
The weapons are pretty decent, though my absolute favourite has the be the flamethrower, it just feels satisfying. If the whole game was focused on this weapon and you spent more time polishing and improving other aspects i would be just fine.
Other than that its a great entry and I quite enjoyed some of the combat.
I guess you want contructive criticism too, however. So... the game is a bit too easy. The zombies aren't really a threat, many of them don't even attack. The shotgun feels pretty weak, even though it isn't - maybe faster bullets would make it feel more "punchy"?
And there's a small issue - pausing the game doesn't actually pause it at all :P
There were a few issues though. For one, I felt the game was too dark. A bit more contrast to the world could go a long way towards making things feel clearer in the flashlight. I also had to ctrl+alt+del the first time I died because I couldn't get out of the game - the button that said return to menu wouldn't work. Also, auto picking weapons was a bit annoying as during the midst of being overrun I ended up swapping my flamethrower for a pistol. It was also a little difficult to see what kind of weapons were on the ground.
What I really liked about the game, though, was the weapon variety. The hordes of zombies that would rush at you gave it the extra it needed to keep you on your toes. Lovely entry.