LudumData

Keep Sweep by Invixel

[raw]
made by Invixel for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

------Keep! It Alive!------

Gameplay_2.png

* In this game, you play as a keep that has been brought to life by some higher power. Fight your way through the world and upgrade yourself to the max!! *

Win condition

There isn't really one, but when you have 3/3/3 in upgrades, you can consider yourself a winner.

Controls

More detailed in the itch.io page, but basically WASD to move, hold and release Space to shoot, Q 1 2 3 are for repair and upgrades.

Tools used

* Unity Personal *

* Aseprite * for all in game art.

* Photoshop Elements 12 * for "marketing art" (cover art on this website and itch.io).

* Cubase Elements 10.5 * for the soundtrack and the fanfare, also for recording the intro voice line.

* Audacity * to cut away the start of a sound clip, can't remember which one though.

* SFXR * for the other sound effects.

Edit 1:

Fixed the audio issues (i think) and changed some numbers so that the game can't be completely cheesed.

Youtube https://invixel.itch.io/keep-sweep
Youtube https://invixel.itch.io/keep-sweep
Youtube https://invixel.itch.io/keep-sweep
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/keep-sweep

Ratings

Overall 1069th 3.559⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Fun 720th 3.574⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 258th 3.853⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Theme 191th 4.191⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1781th 3.176⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Audio 990th 3.258⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Humor 141th 4⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1102th 3.453⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

GRISuS
15. Apr 2020 · 14:27 UTC
hmm
peterfiftyfour
21. Apr 2020 · 08:28 UTC
Hey nice game! I like how the steps feel heavy and also those legs are hilarious. The audio was clipping hard most of the time so you could prop just turn it down a bit. Needs more upgrades! I was unstoppable at the end just stomping everything. You could add stuff that can't be stomped to force the player to shoot. Also a jump and slam attack would be amazing lol
🎤 Invixel
21. Apr 2020 · 09:35 UTC
@peterfiftyfour Thanks for the comment!
This is my first project with more than a couple audio sources so i have never had to deal with audio clipping before but i will release a patch with that fixed. Also, the ballista towers were meant to be harder to stomp so i will make a balance patch that fixes that. I think that's allowed, right?
J-fret
22. Apr 2020 · 21:49 UTC
This is the tower offense game of my dreams lol. Nice work!
ajahks
22. Apr 2020 · 21:51 UTC
Tower offense? This game was really fun, but archers have too much health!
CMRobbie
22. Apr 2020 · 21:52 UTC
Fun game, but it's way too hard to not get hit in my opinion. Would love to see it fleshed out with more upgrades and some sort defensive option, maybe boss battles against enemy castles
febreve and the girls
22. Apr 2020 · 21:53 UTC
I thought it was a great little idea for a game! Really nice idea. Loved the way the keep walks around. Personally would like the aim arrow to move a bit faster but that could be personal taste.

Good job!
ditam
22. Apr 2020 · 21:55 UTC
Damn, it alive yo! Hilarious opening, theme 5/5.
wheelsx
22. Apr 2020 · 21:56 UTC
A little hard at first, but once you get used to it, it's great
HeylloPotato
22. Apr 2020 · 21:57 UTC
It was fun but really really difficult the enemies should only need to be one shot, or your movement could be faster because you can barely dodge and when you are trying to shoot you die easily atleast I did, but it was really difficult I liked the music though but overall it was a fine game!
Team Watt
22. Apr 2020 · 21:58 UTC
Funny take on the theme, I enjoyed being a sentient KEEP.
JamesOliverMusic
22. Apr 2020 · 21:58 UTC
A fellow keep simulator game!! We made something similar(ish) for our entry. I like the shooting idea and the fact you can move to defend yourself. Some extra weapons would be nice and maybe the mouse could be used to aim instead of click-hold? Good job though.
Lamasaurus
22. Apr 2020 · 22:00 UTC
Loved the voice at the start of the game! Funny stuff! Got pretty far into the game, it became pretty hard when there were less houses to stack on currency. So all the money I had went to repairs instead of upgrades until I died. Cool idea, well executed, but could still use some polish :wink:
Rongefilet
22. Apr 2020 · 22:00 UTC
It took me a while to find an effective strategy and realize trampling things was way more effective than shooting them. It's quite difficult right now and I think it's mainly due to the attack not being effective enough do be reliable. But overall that was very fun and I am quite fond of that (horrible) pun, great entry!
niceden
22. Apr 2020 · 22:03 UTC
Maybe too difficult for me, but it is a very fun game and I love the general vibe. Congrats !
🎤 Invixel
22. Apr 2020 · 22:06 UTC
@lamasaurus @rongefilet @heyllopotato @cmrobbie
In the first version of the game, it was waay to easy and almost impossible to lose, so along with an audio fix i buffed some of enemies, but it seems that i overdid it. I guess that's the problem of the only two playtesters being the developers that have played the game 20 times as much as anyone else haha!

I am not totally sure what the rules allow, is it allowed to continue to balance patch and tweak if you don't add any features? Cause real games to that all the time and they get no complaints :shrug:

Thanks for the comments by the way!
herzig
22. Apr 2020 · 22:07 UTC
So far this was the one I had to laugh most, good job! I spent quite some time playing this and will probably come back to stomp some more stuff. The steps feel really well. I find it a bit hard at times, one thing that could help is the possibility to do partial repairs, as soon as health gets really low the repairs are often too expensive and impossible to keep it alive. Also I found that sometimes you have to get lucky to not get too many archers in the beginning so that you can upgrade a little bit first.
Leetchi_Heda
22. Apr 2020 · 22:08 UTC
Funny little game, you are right in the theme. Maybe you need to explain more every upgrades and add more feedbacks.
🎤 Invixel
22. Apr 2020 · 22:08 UTC
@herzig

Ha

"keep it alive"

Also yea, i should probably tweak the enemies down a bit...
BoxedMeatRevolution
22. Apr 2020 · 22:15 UTC
Great interpretation of the theme! Very creative word play :laughing:
I'm not sold on the way shooting works, but I loved stomping around and crushing things. I wish I could upgrade my legs! Make them big and strong and stompy. Good entry!
fabula_rasa
22. Apr 2020 · 22:16 UTC
Amazingly cool idea! I loved being an actual tower defending itself :laughing:

Aiming felt kinda slow to me. But that may be just because I sucked at it ;).
prepparedheathen
22. Apr 2020 · 23:00 UTC
Tons of fun. Really had me keep trying until I got to the max upgraded keep. After that though, the game should have ended. Max upgrades made the rest pretty trivial.
🎤 Invixel
23. Apr 2020 · 08:01 UTC
@prepparedheathen
Yeah, if i had time i would've added some final boss like an enemy keep or something, but i had a physics exam on Tuesday that i had to study to as well... :cry:
Cadstor
25. Apr 2020 · 20:00 UTC
Wow men! I love the idea and the SFX. :3 Nice job
TerribleTrioJoe
01. May 2020 · 00:20 UTC
This was really fun! The intro and music added a lot! Very creative take on the theme. There were a couple attempts where the number of enemies initially felt slightly oppressive.
Keppu
03. May 2020 · 16:25 UTC
Interesting take on the theme. You are a walking castle destroying medieval world. Game play brings memories of the old Rampage game. Intro trumpet and music brings lot to the game. I personally don't like the aiming part. Maybe add some spread to the shots instead of resetting aim to the bottom. Upgraded weapons could reduce the spread.

Overall very good entry, I enjoyed the game!
devharts
09. May 2020 · 18:35 UTC
Really fun twist on the theme! Aiming the attacks was a bit tricky, but I was able to get pretty far with the strategy of running away from the arrow shooting guys and smashing all the houses while spending the points on healing and upgrades. The graphics are simple but charming and feel pretty cohesive (other than maybe the keep itself could have thicker outline / generally more pixelated feel?) and the audio feels like a really good fit as well. Nicely done! :)
🎤 Invixel
10. May 2020 · 14:44 UTC
@devharts
You chose the right strategy, in the first build the game could be cheesed by running in one direction and you were basically unstoppable, so i had to tweak some numbers which made it much more difficult. Now dodging and farming money is required to get anywhere really.

Yeah, the graphics were kinda rushed and made by two different people, so that definetly wasn't ideal for coherency! :)

The audio was only me tho so that was easier (also, SFXR is a godsend)
GameOverMexico
10. May 2020 · 21:39 UTC
Archers are very tough but it's great when he walks, ITS fun AND good game, good job!
Steven C
10. May 2020 · 21:45 UTC
It seems really cool, but it's impossibly hard. After a few tries, I just started running away to one side, trampling everything without even shooting anything. That seems to be the best strategy, but I doubth that was your intention. Still, nicely done! With some tweaking I'm sure it could be really great! I love the concept, the intro, and the keeps legs! :smile:

Edit: after trying some more, I started using the upgrades and started shooting a bit more (still mostly running though), the different enemies are fun. Good job! :thumbsup:
honey
11. May 2020 · 08:53 UTC
Awesome! :) The aiming mechanic is interesting and I got into it pretty quickly. Also the number of upgrades is pretty amazing! It seemed like the arrows were pretty inefficient in the beginning in comparison to just stomping on everything, but with later upgrades it was really fun to throw stones around :)

What I think is a bit off is the directional arrow when aiming, I think it doesn't set the expected direction properly, so it takes some time to get used to where you should actually aim. Also I think there could be better indication both of you dealing and getting damage.

But overall I felt preassured enough to actually think what am I doing, I was using everything you provided and all the hitting and stomping felt pretty good! Nice entry!
Dane Tesla
11. May 2020 · 12:17 UTC
I love the intro, is it your voice? xD

It was really fun, I liked the music and the concept was hilarious. Good theme implementation. The only weird thing I've encountered was that If I went left for a longer time there was no enemies and no houses to crash. Not sure if it was intentional or not but it was a bit weird since at first there were houses and archers and then suddenly nothing.
🎤 Invixel
11. May 2020 · 14:00 UTC
@dane-tesla Yeah, thats my voice, it's a bit low and maybe too much reverb on it but it was well worth it to record.

The problem with enemies disappearing seems weird, I've never had that happen to me. Did you try to move a bit further in one of the directions? Or did you try to move both directions? I put a spawn-cap of 10-20 something enemies at a time, and made them disappear when going too far out of range. Either, buildings spawned outside your field of view and you just didn't move enough to spot them, or the spawn cap was filled with slow-moving enemies that chased you endlessly in one direction. That's the only scenarios i can come up with where it would break...
Dane Tesla
12. May 2020 · 10:49 UTC
@invixel I was moving both directions then decided to move left only for some time and then it happened. I had some upgrades already so at first I thought that I "won" but there was no endscreen or so xD So yeah maybe it was the issue with slow enemies chase or something.