LudumData

Keep Ye Alive by JoskerDu

[raw]
made by JoskerDu for Ludum Dare 46 (COMPO)

About the Game

An action rogue-like deck builder with a souls-like twist. Just kidding. It's a side-scrolling endless runner where the hero and enemies battle it out while you watch and choose how to keep it alive. Will you spend your money on health potions? Buff the Hero with a magic shield? How many waves can you KEEP YE ALIVE?!

Compo in 24hrs

  • I worked alone on this. The artwork, sound effects, music, and code are all mine and fresh as of the last couple dozen hours. I am using PIXIJS and a lightweight boilerplate that I created to start from - other than that and minor use of GSAP the rest is vanilla JS... erm... TS.
  • Fair warning this game is hardly done needs some work and I'll likely keep pushing but I had a blast trying to get something cranked out in 24 hours (I didn't get to start until 9PM yesterday). Pink head is a placeholder... just couldn't use the plain pink box on its own. :laughing: Ugh... yeah and it hasn't been optimized or preloaded :rolling_eyes:
  • Sorry, so far there is only the one health potion (cost 1 coin). There are meant to be a number of enemies and waves and what not... but yeah... time is a thing.
  • To be fair, I'm just glad I got the concept down. Can't wait to get this polished up over the next week or two.

How to Play

  • The game plays itself. The hero will fight the baddies and if he lands his sword swing he'll take them out. Otherwise he may take some damage.
  • Buy potions with the hero's earnings to keep it alive.
  • Click a potion to purchase it and the hero will immediately drink it.
  • You can take a couple of hits after your :heart: is empty but after that it's Wilhelm time!

ld46-keepalive-4.gif

What Didn't Make it in?

  • Additional shop items: other potions, weapons, armor, etc
  • Real enemy artwork and enemy variety
  • A wave system and increasing difficulty over time
  • A time survived clock
  • Title and instructions along with a real game loop lol
  • More music and sound
  • Post effects like glows and sparks
  • Additional animation frames for all the things
  • Ground block variety
  • Background parallax layer variety

Post Compo Updates

I've added a second set of links for post competition updates - both the build and the source code repo on github! Due to the feedback I've gotten, I want to keep improving this game and letting folks play the latest build. As per the rules I'm listing the change log here. Please, only judge on the original submission, but enjoy the most recent updates. * [added] Run Timer - so you can see how long you Keep Ye Alive * [fixed] Ye Shoppe - now purchases are animated, bugs are fixed, and unavailable potions are grayed out rather than missing completely * [fixed] Broken game loop - now you can Keep Ye Alive AGAIN! * [updated] Potion artwork - refined the look of the bottles so that they're distinct * [fixed] Lots of little bugs and edge cases * [added] Gelatinous Cube enemy to replace placeholder pink head

If anyone is interested... I'll be streaming future work on this game for a couple of hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays (10PM-Midnight EST). https://www.twitch.tv/joskerdu

Youtube https://www.jrvisuals.com/games/ld46/
Youtube https://www.jrvisuals.com/games/ld46/keepyealive_source_041920-10pmest.zip
Youtube https://www.jrvisuals.com/games/ld46-latest/
Youtube https://github.com/jrod-disco/ld46-keepalive
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/keep-ye-alive

Ratings

Overall 1028th 2.697⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1071th 2⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 991th 2.579⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 849th 3.224⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 447th 3.551⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Audio 620th 2.865⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Humor 625th 2.514⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Mood 863th 2.719⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Given 39🗳️ 42🗨️

Feedback

JetTheSimon
20. Apr 2020 · 03:54 UTC
Really nice graphics. Didn't really understand the controls. Was clicking swinging my sword? Other than that just needs more content but I see you only had 24 hours so understandable :). Nice effort.
mailman
20. Apr 2020 · 03:59 UTC
Enjoyed the pixel art! Would of benefitted from some sort of control manual. Looks polished for a 24 hour game!
Symnel
20. Apr 2020 · 04:00 UTC
Was also confused at first and had to come back to understand. But the art and animation, music and sounds were all pretty good. Great job.
FussenKuh
20. Apr 2020 · 04:01 UTC
Short of clicking to buy a potion, I couldn't determine if there were any other controls :/ Still, I enjoyed watching my dude get smacked in the face over and over again by the giant pink head. Much better than a generic pink box! Overall, I'd say great job for 24 hours!
rjerez192
20. Apr 2020 · 04:02 UTC
@jetthesimon you were only supposed to buy potions.

The concept is interesting, is like managing the adventurer from outside. I would like to see it with more features. Also, PixiJS is awesome.
TheGameGoyal
20. Apr 2020 · 04:04 UTC
Nice looking game. The art is really nice however the enemies takes away from the artstyle. The concept is nice however the mechanic can be a bit klunky and unintuitive. Overall great effort.
rsim
20. Apr 2020 · 04:14 UTC
No controls seem to work? Tried the keyboard, mouse, and gamepad. Nice graphics though.
pulkit garg
20. Apr 2020 · 04:20 UTC
The pixel art other than the enemies was great. Did not understand the controls though.
Kinshuk_thebest
20. Apr 2020 · 04:58 UTC
Nice! I love the artstyle! But how do i buy new potions?
Ioan Pop
20. Apr 2020 · 14:46 UTC
The art, music, and audio fit really well together. I liked the unique take on the theme as well, it's a very interesting concept!
🎤 JoskerDu
20. Apr 2020 · 16:26 UTC
Yeah - it needs a text prompt in the shop panel. There's a lot more I could do.
Basically... the game plays itself -- and you just **click the potion in the store panel to heal the Hero**.
Tero Pulkkinen
20. Apr 2020 · 16:42 UTC
the graphics looks nice even though you have some placeholders still in the game. The controls were slightly unresponsive, but the nice gfx compensated for lack of interaktivity.
bereg
20. Apr 2020 · 16:43 UTC
Nice graphics, the hero art and animation is great. It's fun to play.
Myles McCoy
20. Apr 2020 · 17:14 UTC
honestly despite its extreme simplicity I think it works. very nice graphics, phone-friendly gameplay and controls, just enough RNG to keep it from truly playing itself. would love to see a vast array of strange monsters to keep things interesting during a longer run!
PronomicalArtist
20. Apr 2020 · 17:38 UTC
Wish there was more to play, but it looks nice! You should try and finish it. :D
jamesor
20. Apr 2020 · 17:54 UTC
Awesome job, very fun.
cjgammon
20. Apr 2020 · 18:05 UTC
good job. the controls are a little odd, it's hard to tell what does anything or what's happening. it seems if i hit space i get points but maybe the animation could be a bit more obvious. the graphics are good. i like the sfx too.
cjgammon
20. Apr 2020 · 18:06 UTC
after reading through the instructions again i realize there are no controls other than selecting the potions, i would maybe say that in the intro to the game so the player can't miss it.
🎤 JoskerDu
20. Apr 2020 · 18:10 UTC
Totally. Thanks @cjgammon.
nicolasmaclean
20. Apr 2020 · 20:11 UTC
art looks great! sorry you only had 24 hours
Sergei
20. Apr 2020 · 20:14 UTC
Is it a player inventory management game? I liked it! It's a teamwork as I see it. I handle the hero's inventory, the hero handles the fighting. Would be fun to see it the other way around where the AI would handle my inventory and I would handle the fighting. = )
airwaffle
20. Apr 2020 · 20:16 UTC
Cute! Nice graphics and an interesting concept. However I would honestly say it was not superfun to play in it's current implementation. But a neat concept that can probably be improved by adding more content / things to do!
airwaffle
20. Apr 2020 · 20:16 UTC
Cute! Nice graphics and an interesting concept. However I would honestly say it was not superfun to play in it's current implementation. But a neat concept that can probably be improved by adding more content / things to do!
🎤 JoskerDu
20. Apr 2020 · 20:17 UTC
@sergei That's right! Glad you got the twist.
I like that idea of switching up roles as a mechanic too.
🎤 JoskerDu
20. Apr 2020 · 20:24 UTC
**Thanks everyone for the early votes and for your comments, feedback and ideas.**
I've made games all my life but this is my first time participating in this jam. Feels good. :two_hearts:
I'm going to clean up the code and get a little more polish on it and put the source and assets up on the github (currently empty) link above. It'll probably take a couple of weeks with my schedule but feel free to star the repo or just check back later.

@sergei, @nicolasmaclean, @jamesor, @pronomicalartist, @myles-mccoy, @bereg, @tero-pulkkinen, @ioan-pop, @pulkit-garg, @kinshuk-thebest, @rsim, @thegamegoyal, @rjerez192, @mailman, @fussenkuh, @jetthesimon You all rock. :metal:
Milestone Games
20. Apr 2020 · 20:29 UTC
As many others I dove into the game without reading everything and struggled a bit with the controls initially. Very cool concept though. I really like the mood, great touch with the guitar.
matt2728
20. Apr 2020 · 23:12 UTC
I was a little confused at first until I went to the comment section. Can I lose if I just spam health potions? Overall nice art! What were you planning on using other than the pink head?
🎤 JoskerDu
21. Apr 2020 · 01:25 UTC
@matt2728 Thanks for playing.
It is probably possible to live forever if you spam health potions. In the future I would have a wave system and the enemies would get tougher. Potions would have a re-spawn timer; possibly causing you to have to purchase a more expensive potion because the cheap one hasn't re-spawned. I want to add other items too, weapons, armor, etc... but 24hrs just wasn't enough. ;)
I'm going to keep working on this until October and I'll keep the repository public for anyone who wants to help or just grab it and re-skiin it.
d1str4kt0r
21. Apr 2020 · 16:50 UTC
This is amazing! imagine if you had more time, this is already impressive for 1 person doing it all!
🎤 JoskerDu
22. Apr 2020 · 05:02 UTC
Thanks @d1str4kt0r ! I appreciate you saying so.
I'm going to keep working at it for a while when I have the time.

I don't want to update the compo page, that wouldn't be fair... but I'm posting updates here as I go: https://www.jrvisuals.com/games/ld46-latest/ and also pushing the source code to a public repository here: https://github.com/jrod-disco/ld46-keepalive
erkoply
22. Apr 2020 · 16:48 UTC
The running beard dude looks amazing. I can see what you're going for and I'm really interested in this concept! Would love to see you take it further.
🎤 JoskerDu
22. Apr 2020 · 22:03 UTC
Thanks @erkoply ! I had a lot of fun -- so hard to get a good run loop in 4 frames. :runner:
I've got a URL above your comment where I'm continuing the work.
Fizzget
23. Apr 2020 · 19:41 UTC
Great looking game. i played both versions you currently have going and i like where you are taking the development. hopefully you give the next ludum dare a go as i look forward to what you might make.
🎤 JoskerDu
23. Apr 2020 · 23:00 UTC
Thank you @fizzget I appreciate the feedback. I'm definitely going to do the October LD -- trying to get a team of 3 together for that one.
cheesepencil
01. May 2020 · 03:36 UTC
The belch was a nice touch and for 24 hours the compo product is a great proof of concept. I caught you on twitch post-jam working on it and had to check it out. Even in 24 hours you ticked pretty much all the boxes: a lose condition, music, sounds, and graphics. It's endless I assume so there's no expectation of a win condition. On top of all that you built it with a library you weren't familiar with IIRC?

I dig it, GG
🎤 JoskerDu
06. May 2020 · 15:19 UTC
Thank you @cheesepencil much appreciated - and thanks for stopping by the stream!
I think I'm going to keep working on this and streaming progress until the next LD in October.
dkviplounge
12. May 2020 · 21:28 UTC
Was lured into turning up the volume because the bg music so low, then ruptured eardrums with first enemy sound yikes! I like the mobile game style one button simplicity, but felt I had no control over winning or losing - just buying potions as coins are available at random. Pixel art is nice except for enemy which doesn't blend well with other art.