Z Rhapsody by KaafiRookie

made by KaafiRookie for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

Was not able to complete, this is just a small demo!

Would love to get some feedback on the mood and look of the game, because that's the only thing I could work on.

The game is set in a surreal uncanny universe, so the art direction is according to the story, which will make sense in post LD

I wanted to do a lot more for the game, but was only able to nail the look that I wanted, it was suppose to be a game where we are stuck in a reverse loop, stuck in a loop in both space and time.

Right now the we're stuck in a loop in space not time, as we die we re-spawn to an earlier location.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVkta6o6mfA

Third Party stuff used

UMA 2 - For Modeling https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/uma-2-unity-multipurpose-avatar-35611
Unity Chan Toon Shader - for cel-shading - https://github.com/unity3d-jp/UnityChanToonShaderVer2_Project
3D game kit by unity - as base project
Music is from 3D game kit.
Environment models - RPS\FPS game assets - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/industrial/rpg-fps-game-assets-for-pc-mobile-industrial-set-v2-0-86679
Skybox - Fantasy SkyBox - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/sky/fantasy-skybox-free-18353
Water - Water Effect Fits For Lowpoly Style - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/z-rhapsody
Soldier Armor - Eci Forge Uma Armours Pack1 https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/eci-forge-uma-armours-pack1-128503

Most of time was spent on integrating different systems to make them work together, was not able to work on main gameplay loop.

The boss in the end of level is just the boss from kit, have to change it to an UMA.

Screenshot_40.png

Youtube	https://kaafirookie.itch.io/z-rhapsody
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/z-rhapsody

Ratings

Overall	1526^th	2.824⭐	53🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1480^th	2.598⭐	53🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	1565^th	2.422⭐	53🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1613^th	2.367⭐	51🧑‍⚖️
Humor	977^th	2.44⭐	44🧑‍⚖️
Mood	980^th	3.22⭐	52🧑‍⚖️
Given		60🗳️	74🗨️

Feedback

etrealjunior

07. Oct 2020 · 08:40 UTC

I liked your game my congratulations, I also did one if you want to know, and give me your feedback I am very grateful, this is the link https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/resurrection

Mubble

07. Oct 2020 · 10:33 UTC

The game looks good. But I feel like too much effort was put into building a pretty environment/level, and too little effort was put into making the base mechanics work well and/or making them feel good.
There's definitely potential though.

🎤 KaafiRookie

07. Oct 2020 · 19:03 UTC

@mubble I agree that I didn't work on the gameplay at all, the little gameplay was cooked up in the last few hours before the submission, I was exhausted from a personal project, will complete this demo later with a fresh mind. Thanks for checking it out.

@etrealjunior Thanks mate! Will play you game over the weekend for sure!

Kirin_Prime

08. Oct 2020 · 19:55 UTC

Good base for a nice game its playable as a demo, enjoyed it and I'd like to see a future version of it :D

Spotline

08. Oct 2020 · 20:00 UTC

I think I never saw a 3rd person beat them all with this kind of graphics in a game jam :O Did you do the animation work yourself ? Art style is interesting, I really like the overall mood. Even if you didn't work on gameplay I found myself a bit involved in the fights (and i love the way the ragdolls glitch all around the place :D) Environments look good but a bit empty. The most troublesome element for me was the camera, i feel it has a good intention but there is a stiffness in the behavior that is not very enjoyable. Anyway congrats on this (too ?) ambitious project :)

MerlinnSound

08. Oct 2020 · 20:01 UTC

Hey! Although the game isn't finished, I really enjoyed playing the demo. It looks good, there are convincing animations, the controls feel really good, you even included some enemies to beat up!

I'm an audio guy, so I don't know much about programming, but this entry is quite impressive for me.

Deathlymad

08. Oct 2020 · 20:05 UTC

i had a blast running through the level. while the gameplay is still unrefined the design really made it entertaining to look at everything and when sth felt wrong it made it amusing and not annoying. soyea i'd totally also play the final version.

🎤 KaafiRookie

09. Oct 2020 · 08:57 UTC

@kirin-prime Thanks a lot for playing it! Glad you liked it, yes I will work on a post LD version in some time, right now I'm busy with personal work.

🎤 KaafiRookie

09. Oct 2020 · 08:58 UTC

@spotline Thanks a lot, the mood is what I was testing out in this one. The animations are mainly curated from unity projects and kits. Ragdolls are always fun even when they glitch :P (will fix this in post LD), even I feel the whole game is empty atm so a lot more is in my mind for this demo and will put it out before the event ends! As for the camera, I wanted to have a dynamic camera and this is a dirty fix tbh, will improve it. Thanks a lot for such valuable feedback!

ps- It was always too ambitious :P

🎤 KaafiRookie

09. Oct 2020 · 09:00 UTC

@merlinnsound Thanks a lot for trying out the demo! This is just 10% of the project in my opinion, I wanted to have adaptive music in the game, and will implement that in post LD version. I'm glad that you had fun playing the demo!

🎤 KaafiRookie

09. Oct 2020 · 09:02 UTC

@deathlymad I'm glad that you had fun playing the demo, yeah the gameplay was cooked up in last few hours, I will work on a post LD version and try to put it out before the event ends. I'm looking forward to complete this project!

Gonzalol

09. Oct 2020 · 11:09 UTC

This has a lot of potential. The controls are smooth and very intuitive.

ikelucas

09. Oct 2020 · 14:58 UTC

I liked the visuals a lot, it reminded me of No More Heroes and Killer is Dead. The controls are simple but effective and they have room for improvement, and with a little more attention to sound design this could be a really good game. Looking forward to it!

VPhyre

09. Oct 2020 · 15:41 UTC

The atmosphere and the whole audio visual part of the game are very well worked. I believe you are on the right track and in the future you will be able to launch a well-crafted game. Keep working on this project, congratulations.

Siddharth

09. Oct 2020 · 17:41 UTC

Grphics look very good. Though my potato pc wont run this in its full glory. I kinda like the shaders and environment. Gameplay needs more work.. It was worth downloading 500mb XD

etrealjunior

10. Oct 2020 · 01:41 UTC

I know that your game is in the prototyping phase, I really liked your art, I know that the mechanics will have to evolve over time, but I feel that this project is something that you were already working on and tried to adapt to Jam, I will give you a good tip: projects that depend on many things involved are usually not jam games because they always look like a prototype because there’s never anything ready, everything ends up missing something, another the game becomes a very large file reducing its visibility, because the your game is not the only one that the participants will download, they will try to download the smaller files first, and if there are many yours will end up being forgotten, maybe this art with a well-worked mechanic will draw more attention from the participants, I hope I helped, a big hug.

Jakob Reborn

10. Oct 2020 · 19:53 UTC

Loved the graphics, loved the audio. Wish there was a dash like double tap in the direction you're facing to dash, 'cause I felt like those enemies were kicking my ass too much and I couldn't really fight back. Also maybe some attacks that have more range? And it was a little to dark. You nailed the style for sure, I wonder what it could be if you got some more time to make it.

Cargamoni

11. Oct 2020 · 00:19 UTC

Man that graphics, nice i loved to play full version of it. Thanks for game, dont forget rate our game too ^^

pedrocoden

11. Oct 2020 · 08:00 UTC

Nice game!

Arad HamidSamiee

11. Oct 2020 · 09:55 UTC

Good looking game, good soundtrack as well. This can turn into a full fledged game.

Smarto Club

11. Oct 2020 · 14:18 UTC

Very good work! The shading on the character looks great but I think they don't mesh that well with the textures with background materials. The lighting is a bit odd too (mostly because the sky box is so bright but the level is dark) so improving that would help improve the general look of the game a lot.

Olima

11. Oct 2020 · 20:24 UTC

Stlye is really amazing!

asfdfdfd

13. Oct 2020 · 20:26 UTC

I love potential that this game have and jiggling enemies.

Huntrox

14. Oct 2020 · 14:57 UTC

very good looking graphics well done the size is a bit big for gamejam

mediyaz

14. Oct 2020 · 16:46 UTC

Wow very ambitious - really like the weapon impact sounds - super janky but love the aesthetic.

Doot

14. Oct 2020 · 17:29 UTC

Nice work! There is a lot of work put in this.

This was maybe a bit too ambitious?
The art style is a bit messy, with the skybox, buildings and characters not really fitting together.

The combat gameplay feels right even if not great, and is very impressive for 3 days of work.

Good job 💕

Remus Rain

14. Oct 2020 · 18:10 UTC

Great game! A lot of great work put into this. Already a lot of great stuff working here! But I just could run past all enemies and didnt see why I should find them. Also, I had no idea where to go and why. It will take you many many years to make a game from this. You should really think twice / thousand times if you really want to make a game from this. Making realistic 3d games with combat ... takes a team of really experienced experts and many years to do. If you want to release a game in the next years, work on something smaller :) I found the jumping on buildings for example a lot of fun and the speed that the player had. Maybe make a platformer from this where you parcour through a city quickly? That is way smaller and for me the main fun of the game so far

🎤 KaafiRookie

14. Oct 2020 · 18:36 UTC

@remus-rain Thanks a lot for trying out this demo! The enemies serve no purpose atm, they're just to try out the light attack. There's no objective set up, as you noted. And I've been making games for past 12 years ( as a hobby) now and I know the work involved, this was never intended to be a complete game, just a demo where I wanted to try something in 3D with cel-shading, when the theme was announced a game came to my mind and I just wanted to try it out! :smiley:

And yes the verticality of the levels was supposed to be a way the game could be played, by completely avoiding conflict ( thus the light attack is with the sword still in the sheath).

I'm working on completing this demo and will release it before the event ends with the source code, would love to get some feedback when it's done. :v:

Joey Vrij

15. Oct 2020 · 07:45 UTC

controls are really smooth, very well done. I love the style, a bit ambitious for a gamejam, but I applaude the effort! I think with a little more time you can make this into a very enjoyable game! Great work!

SludgeKey

17. Oct 2020 · 16:37 UTC

I wasn't expecting a hack and slash game during this jam so that's cool. It's a great framework to continue on! The theme was a bit harder to find for me but it felt pretty smooth!
Great job!

Leon Oost

17. Oct 2020 · 19:27 UTC

Cool game, the graphics were epic! Maybe try to tweek the movement some more next time.

ElllaDee

18. Oct 2020 · 16:17 UTC

Well, I want this game in a full version. Like it, good job!

Omiya Games

18. Oct 2020 · 22:19 UTC

I think the game has some strong potential, especially in the exploration department, when I played it on-stream. Most movement controls felt really smooth, and I would only suggest making a few tweaks, like slightly increasing the jump height and consider adding double jump. Sadly, my computer had difficulties running the game, so it was hard to tell how certain aspects worked, such as combat. From what I could tell, combat seemed a bit bare-bones, and the swing visuals made the attacks look incredibly short-ranged and weak. It would have been nice to see the combat polished, such as adding light vs heavy attacks, and defensive maneuvers.

I did think the art direction, at the current stage, looked random and incoherent. The environment clashes with the toon shader applied to the characters, not to mention the mook's armor didn't seem to fit in with the time period the industrial environment suggests. I recognize it used pre-made assets, not to mention the development took a significant time crunch. That said, I would like to see more consistency in visual style, at least, so things appear like they fit within the universe the game is in.

Lastly, the camera controls on PC needs a lot of work. The slightest movement of the mouse seemed to cause the camera to jerk around, which didn't feel great. I also didn't like the Field of View increasing when the dash button is held, as I found it disorienting. I would have preferred the camera pull back slightly, instead.

https://youtu.be/6mjxeFKXq_8?t=1921

🎤 KaafiRookie

19. Oct 2020 · 06:14 UTC

@omiya-games Thanks again for playing the demo!
A lot of things that you pointed out we're result of a single guy making a demo in ~24 hrs and being fixed in Post Jam.

The environmental artwork was purposely detailed than the character(anime style) will make few changes but that's the art direction many liked and I'm going to stick to i, the environment also has cel-shading to it, it's not just plain textured.

The armour will make sense in story mode, just because it's industrial doesn't mean that it's like our world. The world building is more defined in post jam version. The game is not set in modern times, just a premises where the development is more due to advancement in magic, but the lifestyle and living is more like feudal days.

Current the enemies serve no purpose they were put to test the light attack.

I won't say that the attack looks weak, but it is a non lethal short ranged defensive attack, the game can be played with avoiding killing and this making it harder to defeat the enemies, there's also a dialogue system in development, to talk our way through.

And yeah, the fov shift might be a bit nauseous, I realized that after releasing the demo, in post LD it's been changed.

Thanks again for trying it out, I'm working on a post jam version, I'll be really glad if you could try that once it'll be out

Here's some in game footage of the demo to see how it actually runs :p
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVkta6o6mfA

Blacktarus

25. Oct 2020 · 13:53 UTC

Doing this game in 3 days is really impressive. It's really a good Job. !