LudumData

The Pacifist by AlexFSmirnov

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

You're a hippy adventurer who's known as The Pacifist. You got this name because of your belief in the value of life - any creature, no matter how evil, should be allowed to exist.

In this game you will attempt to clear a dungeon from zombies. However, as The Pacifist, you should kill as few of them as possible.

You have two types of weapons - lethal and non-lethal. You can damage zombies with both types, however if you reduce them to zero health with a lethal weapon they will die. If you do so with a non-lethal - they will be knocked out. Be careful though - dealing any damage to an unconscious creature will kill them.

Fight off waves of zombies until you clear the whole dungeon. Kill as few of them as possible while staying alive yourself. Unlock new weapons as you proceed. Share your score in the comments :)

P.S. Unfortunately, I ran out of time so I couldn't make the music before the deadline.

* CHANGELOG * - Fixed a bug where points assigned for HP left were not added to the total score - Uploaded WebGL version - Uploaded the game

Youtube https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w0sZhfIAs1FGALBdIGFShuZbbu_MuIrv/view?usp=sharing
Youtube https://alexfsmirnov.github.io/thepacifist-webgl/
Youtube https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NAOdXAIUs8IQ623s7jNRiw6BMRzzofq4/view?usp=sharing
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/the-pacifist

Ratings

Overall 701th 3.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 540th 3.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 416th 3.425⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 498th 3.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 760th 3.05⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 657th 2.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 840th 2.763⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

Vaclav Kucera
20. Apr 2020 · 14:10 UTC
Cool game, I got 810 on my first try :) I really like the idea, but there's no reward/punishment for saving/killing the zombies, so it was just way easier to keep killing everyone using ranged lethal weapons, once you get the shotgun you'll accidentally kill all the unconscious zombies anyway lol
🎤 AlexFSmirnov
20. Apr 2020 · 14:19 UTC
@vaclav-kucera Actually the reward for not killing zombies is quite high - you get triple points for every zombie you knocked out and didn't kill. So, if you don't kill anyone you could in theory get 3000+ points
Heartclaw
20. Apr 2020 · 15:39 UTC
I got 3.2k on my first playthrough with only 10 enemies killed!
Epic game and super fun. Especially trying not to kill downed zombies with the aforementioned shotgun xD
I wish you had time for SFX man, and it'd be a gem :)

overall - really fun, polished and different from the usual top-downs with respect to that pacifism mechanic, which adds a lot more care to whatever you do.
Also tried speedrunning it with murders only and no HP loss - didn't earn as many points, so being merciful definitely pays off.

Bonus points from me for rainbow coloured protagonist :D
Rhiz
20. Apr 2020 · 16:07 UTC
The fists don't seem to work.
The game feels kind of condescending, like it's trying to strawman pacifism.
Fedora
20. Apr 2020 · 16:21 UTC
Cool game, but I think the fact that not killing zombies only affects your score at the end is flawed. I started trying to not kill them, but I ended blowing them up with the RPG, just because it was easier and faster. Still, finished it and enjoyed it.
bereg
20. Apr 2020 · 16:24 UTC
Interesting way to think about the theme. The gameplay is fun, although too many zombies dies. Hope, you will add sound to the game.
RilleP
20. Apr 2020 · 16:24 UTC
Cool concept!
Saviqq
20. Apr 2020 · 16:37 UTC
Super interesting game, one of the better ones that took LD theme for a spin. My notes:

**Things I liked**
- art style
- concept and it's execution
- difficulty

**Things that could be improved**
- I know you said you didn't have time to add music but that would helped it so much with overall better atmosphere for a game
- more enemies with different mechanics

Overall great work in such a short time :smile:
madbookstudios
20. Apr 2020 · 16:39 UTC
Unique take on the theme! Keeping the zombies alive - who would have though it! I got tired of punching the zombies, so whacked out the gun and started firing away. Does that mean I failed the morality test? aha - great work. Main improvement I can think of would be to make the zombies die/knockout faster - this would increase the pace of the game and make it even more fun!
matt2728
20. Apr 2020 · 19:17 UTC
Funny concept. My feedback: I thing it would have been more fun to let you go to a new room after completing a wave, but then again I get that would make it easy not to accidentally kill the downed zombies (because you would be in a fresh room). So not sure on that. Also, in some of the rooms, I had a hard time differentiating between floor and wall (specifically the room where you get a shotgun and zombies start shooting at you).

Overall good project though. The avoidance of downing downed zombies adds at twist on it that makes it not just a simple button masher. It looks like you also added some avoidance to the AI that causes them to spread in such a way that you can accidentally shoot the downed zombies. That was very clever and gave some needed difficulty to the game. Great job overall! Positive ratings :)
airwaffle
30. Apr 2020 · 16:41 UTC
I think everyone has way too much health. I becomes a bit of a chore to get the health down on the enemies. I would have prefered more tempo. I didn't even notice my own health go down at first. I like that you accidentally kill unconscious enemies if you hit them again, that makes it harder to actually be the pacifist. Cool concept and would probably be quite fun giving a bit more work on it!
Bredian
30. Apr 2020 · 17:42 UTC
I wish there was more punishment for killing zombies besides getting less score (or at least, it should be mentioned that you get 3 times more score for unconscious zombie at the beginning). Because of that, I quite didn't get why should I have to keep zombies alive gameplaywise, because in the first room you will defenitily prefer your pistol, since it shoots and deals same damage as fists. Also gray envinronment disorients. Sometimes you look at the screen and can't distinguish floor from wall. And I also agree with @airwaffle: everyone is too beefy here (or attacks do too little damage). This really slowers the tempo of the game and progression: you destroy your enemies for too long.
AndideBob
03. May 2020 · 13:40 UTC
A really interesting idea that I have not seen for this jam so far. The choice between killing something or keeping it alive. I think it would have been more impactful if you had to buy new weapons or health, but you only get money for enemies that you left alive in the end? Something like this. However this is a super solid prototype and nice work for a gamejam!
BitPokit
07. May 2020 · 05:24 UTC
I really like the idea of losing score for attacking the wrong enemy. It's really clever and has a lot of room for expansion if you add on to this game in the future (which I hope you do!) I wish my weapons were buffed a bit, or enemies nerfed a bit, but other than that I think this was done very well for the short amount of time you had to work with! Great job! :slight_smile:
Adam Clayden
09. May 2020 · 18:06 UTC
Nice concept but it needs more visual feedback and a sense of disappointment/punishment (?) when you use lethal weapons. Interesting that you don't want to kill zombies though. The theme could be reskinned to something else. Perhaps you could take the Batman style approach of using non-lethal methods to knock out thugs or something? Regardless, was a cool concept so good job!
Voidsay
09. May 2020 · 18:33 UTC
Some feedback for when you get hit or your melee attacks hit would be very nice. Other than that it's a very fun game!
limbo
09. May 2020 · 18:53 UTC
Maybe the protagonist was a pacifist, but I weren't. After discovering that I can't outrun zombies to the exit and I have to fight with them. And the melee fight didn't go well. Oh, well...
LCStark
09. May 2020 · 19:30 UTC
A good idea. The unconscious bodies on the floor make it really difficult to defeat the remaining enemies in the area. If I was to change anything in this game, I'd increase the amount of damage done by all weapons - taking down even a single zombie using only pistol and fists feels like it's taking forever. I'd also give the player more incentive to not kill the zombies. Perhaps you could add something like money you'd receive for captured zombies after each wave and can spend on upgrades? All in all it's a really solid entry. I had fun playing it. ;)