LudumData

Long Live The King by JavaSaurus

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

Title.png

*STORY*

Hear ye Hear ye,

Let it be known that the King of the land has perished in his sleep. Word came to the throne of a bastard son, who shall remain unnamed from this day forth. The King's brother shall usurp the throne and has declared he will reign with iron hand. If the King's son, rightful heir to the throne, does not reach the castle alive, this shall be seen as a decree in which the prince relinquishes his right and bloodline...

His mother, the Lady, has instructed you to move the Prince to the throne, avoiding the Royal guards who have been instructed to stop you.

Move at night... Move bravely, but most of all ...

KEEP THE PRINCE ALIVE...

*GAMEPLAY*

Run from one safehouse to the next, defeating all royal guards that are trying to take the baby prince. Be careful, once you drop the baby you will not have much time to pick him back up... All guards need to be defeated in order to enter the next safe house. Eventually you will reach the castle, but even I can not tell you what madness awaits within !

Pro Tip : An airborne baby will punish you less than leaving it on the ground, You will still need to pick him up as quickly as possible though !

UPDATE

  1. LD Voting is well underway and we've easily reached the minimal requirements. THAT MEANS I feel entitled to release the list of cheats I implemented, just type the following words during the game :D ENJOY

    HULK one shot all enemies

    IQUIT warp to the boss stage

    IAMSPEED grants superhuman speed

    BIGBABY self...explanatory !

  2. Today I did a major graphics update, rescaling the sprites mostly to make sure they are the same pixel size as the main characters. Also added some small UI changes (an indicator to see the baby when it's dropped, a more fitting "timer" visual, foreground trees become transparent etc...). But the biggest change would be the implementation of the secret knock ! :)

  3. There now is a macOS version. Note that at this time I can't test this so please let me know if anything is off !

*CONTROLS*

The control scheme for Long Live The King is extremely simple. You press [F] to wield your staff, use the arrow keys to run around and press the [DOWN] key to pick up the baby in case it was dropped.

RetrieveTheBaby.png

SecretKnock.png

Long Live The King is a beat em up game developed during Ludum Dare 46, as a Compo submission. This entails that all assets (including audio) and codebase were developed within a timespan of 48 hours.

Youtube https://github.com/Javasaurus/LD46
Youtube https://javasaurus.itch.io/ld46
Youtube https://javasaurus.itch.io/ld46
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/long-live-the-king

Ratings

Overall 350th 3.608⭐ 67🧑‍⚖️
Fun 432th 3.4⭐ 67🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 383th 3.469⭐ 67🧑‍⚖️
Theme 192th 4.023⭐ 67🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 233th 3.852⭐ 66🧑‍⚖️
Audio 331th 3.357⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Humor 232th 3.398⭐ 66🧑‍⚖️
Mood 275th 3.532⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Given 54🗳️ 68🗨️

Feedback

Bill Wheatley
20. Apr 2020 · 06:44 UTC
Best game ever, long live the king.
🎤 JavaSaurus
20. Apr 2020 · 10:13 UTC
@bill-wheatley Thank you ! Glad you liked it ! :D
BookerBlueJay
20. Apr 2020 · 15:08 UTC
I'm always a sucker for this type of pixel style. I would say the game-play gets same-y after a while but I still really liked it!
🎤 JavaSaurus
20. Apr 2020 · 15:30 UTC
@bookerbluejay I completely agree. But this is a compo game and a lot of features got cut :/ I'm still very very very happy with the end result though ! :) Thank you for playing
NomadicRockMan
20. Apr 2020 · 20:47 UTC
I played it all the way through and man do I feel bad for the F key on my keyboard. Really well executable and fun approach to the theme. Nice work!
LouieJams
20. Apr 2020 · 20:59 UTC
I really adore your art and it was pretty easy to get into and have fun with! Really good achievement for entering the Compo! :D
ZabaMan
20. Apr 2020 · 21:00 UTC
Awesome game! Enjoyed the fighting mechanic, would be awesome if you could throw the baby up and juggle him while fighting the guards, haha. Still though, awesome concept and an enjoyable experience!
🎤 JavaSaurus
20. Apr 2020 · 21:29 UTC
@nomadicrockman @zabaman @louiejams Thanks a lot for playing ! I'm glad you enjoyed it :D
Fables
20. Apr 2020 · 22:20 UTC
I feel like I'm ready to be a dad now.
🎤 JavaSaurus
20. Apr 2020 · 22:35 UTC
@fables you managed to juggle the baby around? :D
Jason Woerner
20. Apr 2020 · 22:58 UTC
The airborne baby was hilarious :D The graphics and lighting were great at setting the mood, and the animations all felt really solid. This feels like a great precursor story to a larger game. Now I want some special moves or spells I can cast at the enemy. Great job!
Webox
20. Apr 2020 · 23:16 UTC
Amazing jbo!! This is a great game, really fun, graphics are really cool as is Audio!!
🎤 JavaSaurus
21. Apr 2020 · 09:32 UTC
@jason-woerner @webox Thank you ! :) Yes I want to use this animation style for future projects for sure ! :D But for starters, I really love this one ;)
🎤 JavaSaurus
21. Apr 2020 · 10:15 UTC
@webox @fables @zabaman @louiejams @bill-wheatley @bookerbluejay @jason-woerner Major thanks to your votes ! I sorry if this is too intruisive but one of you didn't vote for audio, I was just wondering as to why this is (it's the first time I made all the audio myself). It'd be great if you could elaborate so I can avoid the issue or at least improve on it for next LD ! :)
Stefanie Leitch
21. Apr 2020 · 10:55 UTC
Fun idea! Graphics and audio were great. My main critique is the gameplay gets a bit stale after around the 3rd safe house. If there were some fresh enemies/gameplay mechanics this game certainly would have held my interest for a while! Maybe even just a break in between rounds in the inn to let the player sort of calm themselves before the next big battle.
🎤 JavaSaurus
21. Apr 2020 · 12:20 UTC
@stefanie-leitch That sounds brilliant ! I did have some extra enemies but I didn't use them in the end. Since this doesn't really break the game I think I'm not allowed to "reactivate" them now :) I could put them in a post mortem build but then I'd worry people would not judge this version you know... I am not sure what the public opinion on such a change would be, since in a way its' not a new feature, just a reskin... EITHER WAY, thank you so much for playing ! :D
Gaminghamster
21. Apr 2020 · 13:40 UTC
This game is neat, and made my finger really really tired '^^
A little question though, is there a "win state"? I managed to reach the castle but nothing really happened so I kind of assumed that was the end, unless I encountered a mean bug =)
IronyGames
21. Apr 2020 · 14:35 UTC
Hey! Not bad. I went thru a couple of safehouses, does the game have an ending?

A good way to show progression easily would be to have different guard types for different legs of the journey; maybe even different moves you could learn along the way.

Anyway, I loved the Yoshi approach to parenthood.
Chocolat-Endive
21. Apr 2020 · 14:44 UTC
Nice graphics and gameplay works really well. I enjoyed the little jokes. And it's nice so see some option menus with settings.

I have the same question than @gaminghamster does the game have an ending in the castle?
🎤 JavaSaurus
21. Apr 2020 · 17:09 UTC
Hey all ! There were plans to have a sort of boss fight but I ran out during the timespan of the compo to fix a bug where you can't load the last lv past the castle. I might upload a full version as well ! (if that's allowed per rules)
Collin Thompson
21. Apr 2020 · 19:36 UTC
Really love the graphics and style, and also the story and tone/mood! I would recommend adding some more stuff to change it up but I understand because you said many things got cut because of the time restraints with the compo. The controls and especially the attack controls felt very snappy too. When I was in full screen mode some text in the opening crawl was cut off set the bottom where it said: KEEP THE PRINCE ALIVE. And then in windowed mode when the game started the ground was cut off the screen a little bit, but neither were too bad. I also recommend adding a timer for this sort of game so you tell see how long you lasted. Overall really enjoyed this one, like I said it has the potential for adding lot's more stuff too. Really good entry! Hope it does well and great job!
🎤 JavaSaurus
21. Apr 2020 · 21:51 UTC
Thank you so much for the kind words @collin-thompson ! :)
d1str4kt0r
22. Apr 2020 · 07:33 UTC
i loved it. graphics were nostalgic, felt like playing something on my gameboy, altho the colour palete gives it a more modern feeling!
🎤 JavaSaurus
22. Apr 2020 · 07:41 UTC
Thank you and glad you got something out of it !
Krassenstein
22. Apr 2020 · 13:30 UTC
Pretty awesome! Loved smacking the ever living crap out of everything. Playing baby keep away is also a great pastime.
🎤 JavaSaurus
22. Apr 2020 · 13:36 UTC
@krassenstein thanks for playing ! :) Glad you've enjoyed it :D
pandepic
22. Apr 2020 · 13:54 UTC
A really fun game but I wish there were more defensive options like dodging/blocking, seems like you just have to get hit and keep catching the baby which sometimes gets a bit awkward and makes it hard to kill the enemies. Good job on the graphics and audio, they work pretty well for this game.
JulienLussiez
22. Apr 2020 · 19:15 UTC
Nice ! It reminds me a little bit of the game "Kingdom", it's also in pixel art and with this view.
🎤 JavaSaurus
22. Apr 2020 · 19:42 UTC
@pandepic Thank you ! Yes ... I chose not to add in a health system because that would imply the baby could die and that didn't feel right. I don't know why. You certainly raise a very valid point though... The "hand-egg" effect for the baby was something I actually liked , it added a level of "annoyance" :)

@julienlussiez That's one of the biggest compliments I've gotten ! Kingdom's great :)
snesgaard
22. Apr 2020 · 19:48 UTC
Really fun game with nice art. Wish some of the sound effects weren't as loud. Killing a stack of dogs at the same time almost blew my eardrum XD
🎤 JavaSaurus
22. Apr 2020 · 20:06 UTC
@snesgaard Ooooo I'm sorry to hear, I'm to blame for that... But I think you should be able to lower the settings in the options menu (press esc). Thanks for playing !
snesgaard
22. Apr 2020 · 20:14 UTC
@javasaurus Hehe no problem, was exaggerating a bit :) Was otherwise a pleasure play!
thedashdude
23. Apr 2020 · 07:01 UTC
Loved it!
Lots of things worked really well for this. I thought for the first level this was going to be another entry that didn't have time to render the health bar, but there wasn't one. It was all about the baby, which worked really well.

The pixel art was fun, the sounds felt nice and thwacky, the story was nice, not over done.
There was a moment when I was whacking the crap out of a dozen dogs and guards all hidden behind a bunch of trees I couldn't see anything, then the baby went sailing above the trees, peppered with arrows, where I could finally see him, run under him, catch him, and finish off the enemies. Absolutely brilliant. I started feeling the baby was just as much a hero as my main character. They made it through a lot.

As for issues, nothing major.
There were some graphical glytches in the trees, mostly to the top right I think, where they'd flicker a bit. Not a big deal. The character looked a little blurry when running sometimes.

Loved it. 10/10, would whack bad guys for a baby again.

Edit: Forgot to add, knocking three times to end a section felt really nice. Set the mood really well with a really simple action. Inspired.
🎤 JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2020 · 07:32 UTC
@thedashdude thanks for the kind review ! Means a lot to me :) This is exactly what I was trying to achieve. Thank you for playing !
🎤 JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2020 · 10:15 UTC
https://youtu.be/cvpnRiwrXAY
Brainoid
23. Apr 2020 · 11:40 UTC
I loved baby bouncing in the air during the fight, it is really funny but at the same time it was frustrating that I couldn't find a way to not to make baby bounce away. And the game becomes ok it's gonna jump away anyways so let me try to clear the enemies first then run back to baby. Maybe that's not the actual gameplay but this mechanic made me feel like this so I preferred that way. I'm not sure if jumping helps you on that matter. I could use a dash / fatigue system here maybe :)

Anyway, BOUNCE IT ALIVE, I liked it. Nice graphics and audio. I can see Unity 2D lighting shining in there. <3
Good luck and thanks for the geim.
Black Flag
23. Apr 2020 · 13:35 UTC
Really good gameplay! I really liked how you had to juggle between combat and catching the child! The combat was also very satisfying! It would have been good to have some verticality to the levels, like some platforms maybe! Overall, I had a really fun time playing this one, and its a really good Compo entry!
Lou Trillot
23. Apr 2020 · 13:44 UTC
Great looking Pixel Art, kudos on completing this on your own! This is probably the best looking sprite game I've played this jam :)
🎤 JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2020 · 13:56 UTC
That are very kind words! Thank you so much!
Voidsay
23. Apr 2020 · 18:26 UTC
Thank you for thinking about us linux users.

Nice little game. Baby sound were adorable :sweat_smile:
AstroLabe
23. Apr 2020 · 19:23 UTC
My fingers are dead, long live my fingers
pillitoka
23. Apr 2020 · 19:51 UTC
Simple and fun game. knocking on the door thrice felt satisfying. gave it the 'sneaking at night' feeling.
nsadie
23. Apr 2020 · 20:09 UTC
I had fun, but I have to replace my F key now ;)
AndideBob
23. Apr 2020 · 20:19 UTC
A realy solid entry, as others mentioned it is quite the button masher. But the graphics are really solid and remind of the game Kingdom, which again fits in with your game. Really well done!
🎤 JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2020 · 20:33 UTC
Thank you all so much for playing !

@voidsay Linux is underrated ! I'm sorry I couldn't build for mac...

@astrolabe @nsadie Oh gosh... I hope you at least had fun :D Maybe the game would benefit from having a bit lower HP enemies... There should be a HULK cheat though to fix that !

@pillitoka Thank you ! That was the prototype for "secret knocks" but I never got round to implement it. 2 days is very very very short unfortunately!

@andidebob Thank you !That is a really big compliment ! :) I'm nowhere near Kingdom levels , my pixel "art" resolution is all over the place...Lessons learned for next time !
dodormeur
24. Apr 2020 · 17:52 UTC
Nice graphics ! Protecting the baby reminded me of yoshi's island, without the annoying crying (which is a good thing ^^ )

As other have told, having a more complex combat system would be nice, because right now my strategy is "go ahead, amass the ennemies, mash the button, and get back the baby" ^^ Could be nice to have shield, charged attacks or combo ;)
🎤 JavaSaurus
24. Apr 2020 · 18:11 UTC
Thank you @dodormeur ! Very valuable feedback. Offcourse this was just compo and I had to make some decisions on what to keep ^-^ seems I might have kept the wrong parts ;)
Aurel300
24. Apr 2020 · 22:50 UTC
We streamed your game with Danae: [link to Twitch VOD](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/599171054?t=04h02m19s) (approximate timestamp)

Nice game! As you heard me say a lot during the stream, mixing pixel-art resolutions is a big no-no for me ^^ As for the gameplay, the bashing and baby-bouncing was quite fun, but I felt the game should have been a lot shorter. Towards the end I did not feel that the game was more challenging, just that I had to face more waves of the same(ish) enemies.
🎤 JavaSaurus
25. Apr 2020 · 07:24 UTC
Hi @aurel300 ! Thanks a million for playing my game. As for the pixel art, that's the biggest lesson I'll take with me for the future ! :) Cheers !
mehrdadsh
25. Apr 2020 · 07:58 UTC
Hello, nice game, nice graphics. I'm a programmer looking for a graphic designer or a team to join and maybe work on new games, are you interested?​
email:m.shahiri.m@gmail.com
my LudumDare Game:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/social-distancing-for-ladybugs
🎤 JavaSaurus
25. Apr 2020 · 08:01 UTC
@mehrdadsh Hey ! I'll be checking out your game in our next stream for sure. Thanks for the interest as well :D
5imon
25. Apr 2020 · 08:04 UTC
Nice!
That was funny and stressfull at a time...
Sometimes I had to press F to make the baby fly and catch it, couldn't just pick it up but apart from that - thumbs up
🎤 JavaSaurus
25. Apr 2020 · 08:05 UTC
Glad you enjoyed it @5imon ! Really appreciate it ! :D Yes, the "wack to keep your baby airborne" technique was initially a bug, which my 4 year old sun turned into a feature because it was way more fun XD
Sandra Martinez
25. Apr 2020 · 08:07 UTC
Impressive to know you made this game all by yourself. In my opinion, you should consider use another pixel font that matches the pixel art, and there should be an option where I can make the window smaller, since it's a little big on full screen.
HelmiSetsuna
25. Apr 2020 · 08:21 UTC
I love this game. Feels good when you got to hit multiple enemies
mehrdadsh
25. Apr 2020 · 08:25 UTC
thanks man
Conor Galvin
25. Apr 2020 · 09:19 UTC
Really great work - the flying baby made me laugh quite a lot. I will say the movement feels almost too fast but other than that, really fun to play
coolestdoggie
26. Apr 2020 · 17:00 UTC
Awesome game and in such a short time! Had a really good, scary athmosphere to it
marcmagus
26. Apr 2020 · 18:52 UTC
Thanks for bringing your game for me to play on stream! If you'd like to watch again, the highlight is at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/603459352
MaggardJosh
27. Apr 2020 · 00:56 UTC
Loved the graphics and juggling the baby in the air was humorous (in a terrible way) :smile: Assuming when I reached the castle that was the end of the game? Good entry, had fun playing!
🎤 JavaSaurus
27. Apr 2020 · 08:22 UTC
@maggardjosh When you defeat the king, that's the end of the compo-game ! :) It's about as much content as I could squeeze in there , but thank you for playing ! Very glad you enjoyed it ! :D
ursagames
28. Apr 2020 · 02:46 UTC
Hello! Your game was played during my stream!

If you want to know the timestamp of when your game was played you can see it in this spreadsheet:
https://tinyurl.com/yau8hjzn

And then look in my latest videos and find your game being play (after the current stream ends)
https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos
Joshachu
07. May 2020 · 09:18 UTC
LONG LIVE THE KING
elysiagriffin
09. May 2020 · 18:39 UTC
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/615922637?t=1h39m18s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
🎤 JavaSaurus
09. May 2020 · 20:58 UTC
I'll see you before the next one probably Elysia ! XD
Honest Dan
11. May 2020 · 19:12 UTC
Nice one Java. Was genuinely impressed by this effort. The only issue I came across with the WASD controlls not working for picking up the baby! But a fun take on the theme - a variety of enemies too made a slightly repetitive mechanic feel fresh for longer. Would have enjoyed a little more combat mechanics to make me feel like there was more decisions making to do.