ZERO: UNDIVIDED HEROES by DjindeGames

[raw]
made by DjindeGames for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

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ZERO: UNDIVIDED HEROES is an arcade top down 2D shooter where you play the mighty zero warrior and fight against the other nasty numbers that want you and your fellow zeries dead. The main goal is to try to survive for as long as you can in the arena and score as much points as you can. Why wouldn't you try and beat the current highscore which is OVER 9000 ?

Long story short, did you know that:

0+1 = 1 ["Really ? Thought we were that dumb?"]

Alright, let's try something harder:

0*X = 0 ["Wow! Must have took you long to compute!"]

Hmm, you seem to be pretty good huh? What about this smarty-pants:

X/0 = ? ["That's not even possible you idiot!"]

Oh yeah? But have you even tried? We did, and it causes an instantaneous rift in the space-time continuum! What about trying this by yourself on your ennemies?

And, last but not least, you might want to take a look at this:

0-1 = null ["Hum... NOPE!"]

Whatever, we make the rules you fool! Bwahahahahaha...ah...ah..ahem, well. You're probably wondering what's the link between that and our game, well, here it comes:

The gameplay is based on very basic mathematical concepts: to kill your ennemies you have to divide them (Since you play as a zero, you can guess how painful it must be!). But you can also earn new health points by multiplying them and thus create little zeries that will follow you and absorb damages for you. By now, the most attentive of you guys (and gals!) may have notice that two rules have been left out, well what fun would there be in spoiling everything just yet?

Detailed mechanics are written in the in game rules section. Default keyboard mode is Qwerty but it can be changed on the main menu, make sure to check that before you start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-unWaw8RDk

Everything was made by us from scratch during the event.

The team is composed of two students (Maël Plantec aka Sayanael who was the main artist but also developper, and Thomas Cazaubon aka DjindeGames who was the main developper) in 5th year of computer engineering at the INSA of Toulouse (France).

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Ratings

Overall 322th 3.667⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 170th 3.77⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 492th 3.257⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 323th 3.662⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 661th 3.351⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Audio 209th 3.662⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Humor 280th 3.292⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Mood 627th 3.264⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 34🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

Nithin
07. Oct 2019 · 23:53 UTC
This game is actually fun. Loved where you took the theme. Great idea and executed well.
HiveMinds
07. Oct 2019 · 23:55 UTC
Really cool game!!

The take on the theme is one of the most interesting I've encountered. I wonder how it could be expanded upon.
The graphics are really charming and the music is top notch (sick bass lines :fire: dudes)!

Controls well and it feels very complete and I haven't encountered any bug at all it really is a great entry!!
Sayanael
08. Oct 2019 · 00:13 UTC
Wow thanks bros ! That really means a lot !
🎤 DjindeGames
08. Oct 2019 · 08:22 UTC
Yup, wasn't expecting that, thank you very much guys!!
Bredera
08. Oct 2019 · 14:21 UTC
cool little game, i like the graphics and music! great job!
Copito
10. Oct 2019 · 19:16 UTC
This was fun although i found the "loose" camera a bit uncomfortable personally. Over all i enjoyed the game though! Good job
🎤 DjindeGames
10. Oct 2019 · 19:22 UTC
Indeed, I wish we could have found a way to improve that camera, but we didn't for now :/. Thank you for your feedback !
chaosround
10. Oct 2019 · 19:27 UTC
The game didn't look like much at first, but then he starts picking you up and reveals himself a good game. Well executed.
🎤 DjindeGames
10. Oct 2019 · 19:51 UTC
Thanks dude !
Lepletier
10. Oct 2019 · 21:31 UTC
Very nice! Great entry!
Fvafhae
10. Oct 2019 · 21:51 UTC
A very interesting concept. Graphics is very nice and the music fits perfectly. A really greate entry!
Tony Redmer
10. Oct 2019 · 22:28 UTC
I wish the camera felt a bit more natural. Loved the music, and a really enjoyable game :)
ashashza
10. Oct 2019 · 22:39 UTC
I, like others, struggled a bit with the camera. Looking past that I had a good time with this.

I loved the interpretation of the theme and how enemies evolve over time. The multiply to gain health mechanic was novel to me and felt satisfying to execute.
pilly
10. Oct 2019 · 23:15 UTC
This was a fun one - great use of the theme, and fun to play overall. I also really like the design of the Zero; the belt/sash is genius. I appreciated the personality / differentiation between all the other numbers as well. The camera did make me feel a bit ill, but the music kept me coming back. Nice entry!
Sayanael
10. Oct 2019 · 23:27 UTC
Yeah, the camera issue is well known .. sorry about that :/ thanks a lot for testing it though ! Your comments are very very very much appreciated <3 @fvafhae @tony-redmer @ashashza @pilly
mharring
11. Oct 2019 · 01:33 UTC
Sound effects and music were great, and the gameplay was fun! As others already pointed out, the camera movement was jarring. Having the camera follow the mouse was a good idea, but I would suggest slowly interpolating between positions to make it less drastic. Nice work!
JUSTCAMH
11. Oct 2019 · 01:52 UTC
I really loved that! As a math enthusiast, I love this idea, it's great. It would be even better if you got different weapons, like a multiplication that converts the enemies to zeroes to fight for you. There could also be negative numbers, that you need to fire a square root at to make them imaginary! Awesome game :heart:

EDIT: Oh, I just realised that there is a multiply shot. I now see that it says so in the instructions, but when a player is shown a wall of text, most players will skip it. Avoid walls of text at all costs! With the multiply I was able to get 1771!
selkkie
11. Oct 2019 · 10:27 UTC
I loved this! It was a lot of fun! It was difficult at first because I couldn't land any multiplication shots, but once I got the hang of it it was a lot of fun. Also, some of the enemies spawned in my location (like the starting point), which was almost problematic, except I don't think enemies themselves have hitboxes.
Also might I add, super funky background music, I dug it.
The concept and execution were great, nice work!
Hmaya
13. Oct 2019 · 11:37 UTC
Had much fun playing this little game.
Love the sprites and the music.

The mouse control made me a bit dizzy. I understand why the camera would move when changing shot direction, but movement can get brutal when you move your mouse too fast xD
Also, an auto-shoot feature would have been more confortable to play (with medium-slow fire rate so that there is still something to get from clicking like crazy)

very fun game to play I think it's one of the bests I have tried so far

cheers from Nantes :cheese:
Sayanael
13. Oct 2019 · 15:33 UTC
Wooooow thank you so much guys for such positive feedback !
LoneWolfDev
16. Oct 2019 · 19:34 UTC
Really nice game!! I love the mechanic of getting kills as a health point. And the aesthetic is so well merged with the topic of the numbers. Justthe camera feels a bit fast... but rather than this really good job!
ohsqueezy
19. Oct 2019 · 02:57 UTC
it's subtle what this does by adding the special shot that gives the player a shield but it reminds me that the possibilities haven't been exhausted for even the most standard genres like arena/twin-stick shooters
envy_softworks
26. Oct 2019 · 21:44 UTC
Thank you for nothing.
SleepyStudios
26. Oct 2019 · 22:11 UTC
Cool mechanics, always love a fun simplistic (in a good way) action game.
lilkrit
26. Oct 2019 · 22:21 UTC
The game has very cool gameplay and thats the most important thing. The AI of enemies is good for what it is. Not too passive, not too agressive. Cool idea with using enemies as hitpoints.

I would only change one thing. You use sprites of all the numbers - but they seem to have the same power. It would be cool if higher digits would have more health or powers (even though it doesn't fit the theme of multiplying by zero)
🎤 DjindeGames
26. Oct 2019 · 22:55 UTC
@lilkrit thank you for your feedback. Each number has its very own behaviour and pattern of attacks, but indeed, they all have just one hp and inflicts just one damage when hitting you, however their abilities make them stronger according to their value :)
poodle_in_need
27. Oct 2019 · 01:45 UTC
Ayy pretty nice game, had few problems with the camera moving with my mouse but rather than that i experienced enjoyable gameplay and satifying sounds :) well done !
Avzgui
27. Oct 2019 · 09:46 UTC
Really cool idea for the theme ! Very funny :slight_smile:

(I have to confess that I was expecting a big massive explosion the first time divided by zero :laughing: )
BrokenMirrorMedia
29. Oct 2019 · 00:40 UTC
Haha that's a really great interpretation of the theme. Gameplay was quite fun, felt like a decent top-down arena shooter, but the whole theme of numbers fighting with different operators is really original. Nice work!
kaeveris
29. Oct 2019 · 17:36 UTC
Cool idea, very original, interesting gameplay! I feel like the camera was shacking a bit too much