SwordMaster by HiveMinds | LudumData

SwordMaster by HiveMinds

made by HiveMinds for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

My first Ludum Dare entry!! Also worked on game solo.

Ludum dare 45 entry by "HiveMinds"

Theme - "Start with nothing"

Title - "SwordMaster"

DISCLAIMERS: Crude language - If it bothers anyone of you guys. Only windows build was tested - Please comment if you seem to be getting problems!

I started out with tackling this theme - just as confused as everybody else. The logical way to approach this theme, was to have an entry where you gradually evolve the capabilities of the player / game the farther you progress.

I saw a unique twist I could take this: You start with nothing. But you don't gain anything at all. The game is designed to let you really play with whatever little you can do and how it affects the environment.

So in the end, you start with nothing but you do gain something - experience, skill, knowledge.

STORY:

"""

Play as a master swordsman, entering finally his 1st real dungeon to smite all who stand before him with his mighty sword!!!

At least I hope he does.

...

Is that his sword here near the couch?

HEY WAIT UP!!!!- Welp he's already locked inside.

.....

Hope it goes well......

"""

Would love feedback (even negative feedback is welcome)!! Hope you enjoy!

Tech stack: - Unity3D - Unity CineMachine - Unity TimeLine - TextMeshPro - Bosca Ceoil

Resources (Special thanks to the following for public domain assets): - .fbx Assets by Quaternius (http://quaternius.com). - MicroSoft's Cascadia Code font.

Youtube	https://lambaaada.itch.io/swordmaster
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/swordmaster

Ratings

Overall	479^th	3.531⭐	34🧑‍⚖️
Fun	432^th	3.422⭐	34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	416^th	3.391⭐	34🧑‍⚖️
Theme	277^th	3.719⭐	34🧑‍⚖️
Audio	505^th	3.097⭐	33🧑‍⚖️
Humor	172^th	3.578⭐	34🧑‍⚖️
Mood	577^th	3.317⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Given		27🗳️	36🗨️

Feedback

07. Oct 2019 · 22:36 UTC

A really cool entry! Interesting mechanic, decent music, and quite funny. I did like the Glaive mechanic. Not sure if you could kill the enemies, or maybe I just wasn't patient enough. The obstacles you had to jump over could have been clearer, I didn't realise what they were at first.

07. Oct 2019 · 22:45 UTC

Thanks @robopossum for the feedback, and for taking a gander at my entry :)
You can actually kill enemies, though not with your sword anyhow :/

I was really scratching my head on how to make the falling pits clearer haha.

Hopefully next time I'll think of a nice solution to my next attempt at a falling pit. Maybe a slight fog emission (and an actual clearer pit haha)

07. Oct 2019 · 23:06 UTC

It's so cool, I really liked how the theme is used in the game like yeah use your sword, but it does literally nothing hahaha, so it's cool how the puzzles need to be solved using the scenario and the enemies itself. The only thing is, as you said, that the pits are not so clear at all. But nice job anyway!

07. Oct 2019 · 23:08 UTC

@lonewolfdev Thanks for playing dude!!
I'm glad the theme was clear, I was afraid the cinematic aspect of the game wouldn't be understood too well.

07. Oct 2019 · 23:34 UTC

Fun game and I liked the twist with the weapons. I was a bit confused as to what I had to do in the beggining because the green button wasn't being pressed (I had to run and poke at it at the same time) but other than that its a solid entry. Nice job.

07. Oct 2019 · 23:40 UTC

@noshiz Thanks for playing the game, glad you had fun!!,

I'll look in to fix weird issues such as green button poking soon,

thanks for pointing this out!

07. Oct 2019 · 23:50 UTC

This game was really fun and funny. Good job!

07. Oct 2019 · 23:54 UTC

Couldn't figure this one out--pressing "F" didn't appear to do anything, so I didn't know how to fight the first enemy except to run past him, and then I couldn't roll over the barriers to poke the next switch.

07. Oct 2019 · 23:57 UTC

@sam-awk Really happy you enjoyed it, thanks!!

08. Oct 2019 · 00:02 UTC

Hey @changemewtf thanks for playing my game!

I implore you try again the the roll over the to the switch,

there's more content after that, that I think going through would maybe help you understand the game and why it was made this way a bit better :)

Again, only if you are still interested in the entry, have a great day!

08. Oct 2019 · 00:21 UTC

Oh, cool! I missed the important first text box on my first play through. This time it all made sense. I got to **The End (?)** and had fun on the way there!

08. Oct 2019 · 00:38 UTC

@changemewtf Thank you for having the resolve to try again and give my game another glance!!
This means a lot to me thank you!

08. Oct 2019 · 01:57 UTC

Dude the game is amazing! It's very compact and I definitely enjoyed every room you put in there! When I first came across the enemy I realized you can poke at him and his weapon will fall. I literally spent a couple of minutes trying to maybe pick up his weapon and kill him but nooope. Definitely a great taste of the theme. Thank you for the game!

08. Oct 2019 · 06:47 UTC

Thank you @iantyf !

I never thought of the possibility of having a window of time to pick up the enemies weapon when it falls!

If I would have designed it to have a pick up mechanic I would definitely add that :) Really cool idea!!

08. Oct 2019 · 07:49 UTC

Really cool game! Good job though I did think I could pick up the enemies weapons that kinda confused me

08. Oct 2019 · 08:02 UTC

@skalex Thanks for playing!

08. Oct 2019 · 08:02 UTC

( @skalex , @iantyf ) Definitely an oversight on my part on what the animation I made implied haha. Thanks for pointing this out

08. Oct 2019 · 08:16 UTC

Good job, it's impressive for a first entry, am sure you have some others experiences in games development ! :D

You can be proud !

08. Oct 2019 · 08:19 UTC

@kanonix Thanks man!

08. Oct 2019 · 08:35 UTC

Looks like a fun game, but the movement wasnt working properly for me i Think. It was kind of stuttering :/

08. Oct 2019 · 09:11 UTC

Hi @mad-brokli

I would really appreciate more details on what you encountered.

Was it a specific room? The start of the game?
Persistent stuttering in the game or just at certain moments?

Thanks for playing!

08. Oct 2019 · 09:15 UTC

@hiveminds from the very start, I would press the movement keys and the player would stutter in the direction i press. Basically it took a while to go from the first room to the next

08. Oct 2019 · 13:02 UTC

@mad-brokli The game has scripted 'cutscenes' of sorts.
Where a dialogue box appears.
You can't move in my game when a cutscene is playing till it ends.

08. Oct 2019 · 13:04 UTC

@mad-brokli I suggest, if you're still interested in the game,

To see it to the end there's some fun moments in there :)

08. Oct 2019 · 13:09 UTC

Will give it an other go for sure :)

08. Oct 2019 · 13:44 UTC

@mad-brokli Thank you for having the patience to give it another go :)!!
Would love to hear what you thought if it when you finish!

08. Oct 2019 · 15:18 UTC

Using the sword and gleave did not work when I played the game

08. Oct 2019 · 22:43 UTC

A fun little game, though it was a bit confusing. I'm definitely used to using WASD for movement.

09. Oct 2019 · 19:12 UTC

@nisovin Thanks for the kind words :)

I wanted to make a control setup screen that would actually effect the in-game button tutorials, just didn't have time sadly haha :v:

Was there anything else you found confusing about the game? I would like to know if you remember anything :)

09. Oct 2019 · 19:45 UTC

@pilarius There is an in-game explanation to why these mechanics aren't working.

If you are still interested in the game,
give it another go and see if you still feel about the game the same way.

Thanks for playing :v:

10. Oct 2019 · 13:28 UTC

What a novel twist on the theme you have! Really enjoyable game and the graphics are fantastic, 10/10

10. Oct 2019 · 16:37 UTC

@nachtwitch Thanks!

12. Oct 2019 · 13:50 UTC

I'll be honest, until I read the comments, I thought the falling pits were long large pots for potted plants for some reason! The models are nice and simple and the controls are nice.

Sound, admittedly, was a lil jarring though. As for the enemies, I mostly just ran past alla em.

Still nice game! And great work making it

12. Oct 2019 · 16:25 UTC

@darylsteak Thank you!!
I'll definitely be attempting to make some more engaging enemy encounters in future titles.

12. Oct 2019 · 17:31 UTC

Was very glitchy for me overall. I even ended out of bounce once (see screnshot). In the room on the screenshot I tried to roll into the corner to get the enemies into the pit and rolled right through it.
The puzzles were short and easy to understand. The graphics were a bit too simplistic for my taste. but you opted out of that anyway.
Overall solid game.
![Ld45 - Swordmaster Windows Build Screenshot 2019.10.12 - 19.21.17.61.png](///raw/7a3/22/z/29783.png)

12. Oct 2019 · 17:53 UTC

Thanks for the feedback @ausstein!!
I'll definitely look into this bug where you rolled out of a room bounds, thanks for reporting :)

13. Oct 2019 · 11:03 UTC

Nice game. Not my favorite but I had good times playing it.

Franciszek Pyrć

13. Oct 2019 · 14:06 UTC

Good game!

13. Oct 2019 · 20:48 UTC

@franciszek-pyrc @jihem
Thanks for playing :)

15. Oct 2019 · 08:28 UTC

Appreciate you leaning into the start and continue with nothing. Improving the player's knowledge and skill instead of their avatar is a wise design choice. I think that makes for a potentially stronger design, which is much harder to build a sense of accomplishement around.

15. Oct 2019 · 21:29 UTC

@oneki Thank you :)