Get Down! by picross

[raw]
made by picross for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Get Down is an action-arcade pixel art game where you are tasked with exterminating boogie monsters that have taken residence in a disco dungeon. To kill the creeps, you must precisely aim and throw your records to slice them in half. Be careful though, because if you don't catch the record, it can hurt you too!

optimized get down gif.gif

Controls

WASD/Arrow Keys: Movement

Mouse: Aim record crosshair

Left Mouse Button: Throw Record

Right Mouse Button: Catch Record

vinyl<em>throw</em>man_spin.gif

Screenshots

Screen Shot 2021-04-26 at 11.22.41 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-04-26 at 11.31.10 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-04-26 at 10.59.01 AM.png

The Boogie Monsters

Power Flower flower_pow.gif

Boogie Boy banana_fool.gif

Blungus blue<em>animal</em>chungus.gif

Roley Doley roley<em>blue</em>bossa.gif

Hothead hothead.gif

The Bothersome Tangerine bothersome_tangerine.gif

The Big Bad Deep Dish Beatza ZaBoss.gif

The Team

Jaden Goter: programming lead

Tessa Hardin: art

Camden Obertop: art

Matt Lowe: level design

Erik Skoog: OST, sound design

Gabe Eubanks: sound design

Ratings

Overall 178th 4.032⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Fun 101th 4.074⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 260th 3.851⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1265th 3.362⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 547th 3.979⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Audio 48th 4.315⭐ 48🧑‍⚖️
Humor 147th 3.889⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Mood 177th 4.16⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Given 58🗳️ 78🗨️

Feedback

Franco Fola
27. Apr 2021 · 17:36 UTC
Incredible game! Hard to believe it only took you three days to make this!
Jonrei
27. Apr 2021 · 17:38 UTC
Wow! This was really nice, like a strange hotline miami. Good job!
Ynk
27. Apr 2021 · 17:39 UTC
I didn't expect such a gameplay! Catching back the CD is hard, but it is soooo satisfying when it happens. I really liked this game!
Joris Valette
27. Apr 2021 · 17:45 UTC
Pretty cool game! Who doesn't like disco music?
Throwing records was fun and intuitive.
I didn't understand right away that the second disc you receive is not a more powerful disc, it's just that you now have 2.
The difficulty increases at a perfect pace.
Congrats!
🎤 picross
27. Apr 2021 · 17:51 UTC
@jonrei so glad you got the Hotline Miami inspo! Glad you enjoyed it
dk5000p
27. Apr 2021 · 18:18 UTC
I had fun playing this. I think I knocked an enemy out of the level, which made the level unwinnable, think it happened more than once. Not sure if there is a level restart button, if not definitely something to add due to soft locks. I was impressed by the number of different enemies and really liked the record throwing mechanic.
🎤 picross
27. Apr 2021 · 18:44 UTC
@dk5000p Ah yeah sorry about that, we're patching it today. You can press R to restart a level. Glad you had fun!
Eugenik
27. Apr 2021 · 20:04 UTC
Very cool idea! Good job! :smile: :top:.
Zalos
27. Apr 2021 · 21:36 UTC
Had fun!! Got pretty far but then a baddie was off the screen and I could not get him :c
TheGamerASD
27. Apr 2021 · 22:09 UTC
Nice game, I liked the artstyle and music.
nyanpierre
27. Apr 2021 · 23:46 UTC
nice pixel art
tessahardin
28. Apr 2021 · 00:25 UTC
@nyanpierre thank you! it was my first time with pixel art, so I'm glad to hear that!
Aditya Kumar
28. Apr 2021 · 00:30 UTC
Awesome music! I'm quite bad at these sorts of games, I have trouble keeping track of the bouncing records and the enemies, but I had fun regardless! The disco theme was super fun too!
Pious
28. Apr 2021 · 00:30 UTC
This is an incredibly enjoyable game. The pixel art is charming and the mechanics are fun to play with.

My critiques to make it even more incredible:

No elevator music, the normal music is funky and I don't particularly enjoy the interruption.
Some indication that you are dashing, some effect or sound would be nice because the speed increase is small.
Some bigger indication of where the landed discs are would be nice too because sometimes they get hidden behind a wall or lost in the sauce of the level.

Other than that it is a great game! You guys are doing well!
Skleembof
28. Apr 2021 · 01:16 UTC
I love the catching mechanic but it's really hard to pull off. I think if you added a catching animation or some visual aid when you press right click, it would be easier to practice the timing.
NvrSkipGameDay
28. Apr 2021 · 08:51 UTC
The mechanic of catching and throwing the records was a neat idea, and worked really well. Kinda just jumped right in and it felt intuitive, which I really appreciate. Groovy tunes as well and the floor felt like a party. Great submission!
MikeW
28. Apr 2021 · 15:40 UTC
really great job on this game! The core gameplay of throwing the record and catching it works really well and is quite addictive. The music and visuals are great and compliment the gameplay! Would love to see more of this game.
🎤 picross
28. Apr 2021 · 15:53 UTC
@skleembof good point. We tried to add some leniency to the catching time but some sort of visual indication would be a good idea too! Thanks for playing!
Mog13
28. Apr 2021 · 17:53 UTC
That was funky! The game was fun and a good challenge. I loved all the little extras, like being given the extra disks or the little animations between levels. :thumbsup: nice job!
intrepidhero
28. Apr 2021 · 18:01 UTC
This game was quite fun and a unique idea! I love the artwork. The only thing that didn't work well is, on my laptop, I couldn't move and throw (trackpad) at the same time. Probably works better with a mouse.
Madbarron
28. Apr 2021 · 18:03 UTC
This is great! It's like if PaRappa made Tron in the Crypt of the Necrodancer.

It's hard to time the catches just right, but spamming right-click basically makes it so you don't have to worry about that mechanic at all. Maybe there could be more mechanics based on rhythm, like if discs went faster if you threw them on the beat? I like that the discs destroy enemy projectiles.

The boss was great! Nice idea to use bouncing stuff for the final boss to turn your power against you. A health indicator for the final boss would have been nice.

When the levels don't feel too different from each other, this game is almost on the long side for a jam game.

I dig the style. Good music and nice use of 2d and 3d in the environment. Good job!
🎤 picross
28. Apr 2021 · 18:04 UTC
@intrepidhero Yeah we unfortunately didn't really design with trackpad in mind. Glad you enjoyed it anyway!
Madbarron
28. Apr 2021 · 18:16 UTC
Oh, I forgot to mention that it was a great idea to simply count total deaths and total time rather than having a loss condition :smile:
BinaryPrinciple
28. Apr 2021 · 20:39 UTC
Awesome artwork and music! The game idea is very original and keeps feeling fresh.
I would have like maybe a slow down when the record is coming back to me so I can catch easier.
Nonetheless great entry!
Substain
29. Apr 2021 · 07:47 UTC
great mechanic, cool grooves, seems really polished
Bea
29. Apr 2021 · 16:34 UTC
Hey fun little game! I liked your lighting effects and cool audio. Engaging audio is a must for me.
WetBurritoSupreme
29. Apr 2021 · 19:07 UTC
Top knotch sound effects and visuals, good original going deeper take. Nice job!
kromeboy
30. Apr 2021 · 16:37 UTC
My favourite game so far.

Took me more then half an hour to beat it but it was worth it
Sofimei
30. Apr 2021 · 17:30 UTC
Super cool game! I love the music and punchy sfx, really awesome work from everyone on the team! Super creative take on the theme as well.
🎤 picross
01. May 2021 · 02:43 UTC
@kromeboy @sofimei @wetburritosupreme @bea thank you all! Glad you enjoyed!
Conduit
03. May 2021 · 19:36 UTC
Bruh! Talk about a 5 star entry! From the gameplay to the audio to the source material, flawless execution. Cheers to the entire team that put this together, beautifully done.
🎤 picross
03. May 2021 · 20:03 UTC
@conduit Thank you so much! We love your game too!
Conduit
03. May 2021 · 20:12 UTC
@picross it's my pleasure and much appreciated, I'm glad you all enjoyed it :heart:
DragonZBW
08. May 2021 · 22:49 UTC
I liked the graphics and audio quite a bit, and the concept was very cool. A couple issues I had were that moving without holding space felt pretty useless, and it was difficult to catch the records after throwing them. Also the particles effects are a bit heavy, made it easy to lose where enemies and your records were. Because of that I had a really hard time at the start of the first level where you get the second record - I would throw my records down at the two blue enemies and the particles would catch me off guard since I couldn't see my records under them or know if the enemies actually died, then I would get cornered. Also the perspective occasionally made it hard to see enemies or stopped records hiding behind walls.
Ryan Dotsikas
09. May 2021 · 22:25 UTC
Wow! Awesome job with this, this was a ton of fun! The art was super well done and the music too. The overall vibe was nailed! It was fun to run around and bounce records all over the place, I kept being pleasantly surprised at lucky bounces that would take out whole groups. My only gripe was that the hitboxes sometimes felt off or too punishing in certain cases, but that is such a nit pick. I also loved the general polish, like the elevator transitions! Great job with this!!
tangiblegames
11. May 2021 · 19:15 UTC
Disco! Just an amazing entry. The music was great, monsters were evil. Died 81 times, but finished the game. It was difficult to aim because of the perspective, but that didn't make it less fun to play.
ABplayz
12. May 2021 · 12:16 UTC
Yo pretty sick tbh i really like it :)
🎤 picross
12. May 2021 · 20:29 UTC
@dragonzbw Thanks for playing! Those are valid criticisms. In a future iteration we'd put more time into catching the records and tone down the particles.
🎤 picross
12. May 2021 · 20:30 UTC
@tangiblegames @abplayz Thanks so much for the kind words and for playing!
Chase of Bass
14. May 2021 · 01:33 UTC
bahahahaha the deep dish beatza xD i fn loved this game -the music was funky and the elevator transitions were a nice touch! Gameplay was challenging and really liked how you had to catch your records and not get hit by them -awesome work!! :D
🎤 picross
14. May 2021 · 03:07 UTC
@chase-of-bass Glad you liked it! Thanks for playing!
neontropics
15. May 2021 · 15:07 UTC
Nice twist to the twin stick formula! Feels great to play, the soundtrack was funky fresh and the graphics are great and reminded me of Earthbound.

I don't know if the "catch" mechanic is completely necessary - the timing of it feels hard to judge so I ended up just mashing the right mouse button when close, but that meant it could likely be automatic without really losing out on much.
LDJam user 240741
18. May 2021 · 01:58 UTC
Wow, easily the best game I've played so far. Incredible!
lduser125
18. May 2021 · 02:09 UTC
Simply put this game is awesome. I actually don't have any complaints, the music, graphics and gameplay really felt polished. Amazing job!! :)
🎤 picross
18. May 2021 · 20:39 UTC
@neontropics @pixelandy @lduser125 Thank you all for the kinds words and for playing!
I see what you mean, @neontropics. Us developers even debated whether we should've kept or gotten rid of it, lol. I think if we added an animation to the catch and more deliberate timing it would have been more meaningful. Thanks for the feedback!