LudumData

Dante's Harvest by Wakobu

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

Banner<em>Dante</em>s_Harvest.png

icon.png

Welcome to Hell !

Nothing is deeper than the heart of Gehenna... Dante Alighieri knows that better than anyone!

Follow your guide Virgil through the lair of demons; your job is to fulfill a complete tour of Hell. Your guide's cart has to stop every so often for scenaristic reasons. Take advantage of this to save the souls of poor pagans and sinners... In turn, they will help you defend against the beasts of the deep.

After each level, you would prefer to stay in your safer circle of Hell. However, if Virgil's cart is too damaged, you can decide to sink to a lower circle. This will completely restore your vehicle but it will also bring you closer to Lucifer...

We created absolutely all the assets, and had great fun doing it.

How to play

Controls

  • Move: WASD / Arrows / Mouse right click
  • Change weapon: Mouse wheel
  • Interact: Mouse left click

Goal

Your goal is to achieve a total of 12 levels.

Mechanics

In-game mechanics

Screenshot<em>20210427</em>210322.png

Level selection

After each level, you have two choices: * Staying in the same circle of Hell: difficulty of the game will slightly increase * Sinking into the next circle of Hell: difficulty of the game will highly increase. However, you restore the full health of Virgil's wain

Tips

  • Stay in the same circle of Hell every time you can...
  • You do not need to explore all 9 circles of Hell to win
  • The enemies will target wardens. It can be useful to make a diversion

Screenshot<em>20210427</em>025100.png

A game by the Ludum Darons team.

Post Jam updates

27/04/2021

  • Balance the game
  • Add instructions page
  • Add "soul blast". Ok we are not supposed to add feature after the end of the jam but this one was very quickly implemented and is mandatory to guarantee a good balance of the game...

28/04/2021

  • Final game balance after first feedbacks
  • Add elegant visual effects

29/04/2021

  • Add credit font in credits
  • Add color in change level screen to emphasize the choices
Link https://wakobu.itch.io/dantes-harvest
Link https://wakobu.itch.io/dantes-harvest
Link https://wakobu.itch.io/dantes-harvest
Link https://wakobu.itch.io/dantes-harvest
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/dantes-harvest

Ratings

Overall 705th 3.634⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1249th 3.122⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 578th 3.5⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Theme 541th 3.915⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 145th 4.393⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Audio 987th 3.079⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 905th 2.676⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 762th 3.6⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Given 60🗳️ 61🗨️

Feedback

jkyd
27. Apr 2021 · 04:05 UTC
Great animations!
Squeele
28. Apr 2021 · 09:20 UTC
Salut salut!
Bon boulot les gars. J'ai discuté en privé avec @wakobu , mais je vous donne mon avis sur le jeu ;) :
- Le côté artistique défonce, super boulot là-dessus. Les musiques et les graphismes sont tops!
- Le concept est vraiment bien, le choix "rester au même étage" ou "descendre" est vraiment bon, ça rajoute de la tension.
- Après, j'ai quelques réserves sur l'implémentation du combat, je trouve que ça manque d'équilibrage, mais bon c'est un jeu de jam ça peut pas être parfait dessus.
- Pour l'instant, les pièges et les tours sont pas super utiles sur les derniers niveaux, et le soul blast reste l'outil principal pour progresser.

Globalement ce qui manque au jeu c'est de l'équilibrage et un peu de peps sur les combats. Mais sinon, c'est super ambitieux et ça c'est cool. Félicitations! ;)
🎤 Wakobu
28. Apr 2021 · 21:07 UTC
@jkyd Thanks man ! The game is now well more balances than yesterday, so you should give it a try.
deadmanjw
29. Apr 2021 · 11:27 UTC
This is a good game but found it really hard, 1 thing i noticed was that the enemies "knockback" should be a little less maybe (perhaps that makes it harder). Over all this is a great take on a tower defense game and the theme of dante's inferno is really interesting, animations where really good as well.
JokubasG
29. Apr 2021 · 11:29 UTC
Very good art and animations, but the game is too hard.
Conduit
29. Apr 2021 · 11:30 UTC
Definitely enjoyed the game but man was it difficult XD felt like once the monsters got into the circle I had no chance of saving Vergil. The graphics and overall tone of the game was fantastically done though. Definitely a great entry!
neonian
29. Apr 2021 · 11:32 UTC
Great game, love the art style. We had a similar idea of going deeper into Hell, but had a completely different approach if you want to check it out:)
Majadroid
29. Apr 2021 · 11:37 UTC
Pretty cool game. The visuals are awesome. And you nailed the theme.
Downside: For me the game was to hard. Mayvbe improving the controls could fix the difficulty level (e.g. by having to hit the damned only once).
Xeke-Death
29. Apr 2021 · 11:44 UTC
I only have time to kill 2 pagans and sinners before the demons are on the cart. After that, it takes too long to kill anything so I can't get out to get more souls for defenses.
I found that running really only happened if I was using the mouse for control, right clicking further away for my character.
I like the concept, just needs balancing.
Graphics are amazing, well done.
yellowsalamander
29. Apr 2021 · 11:45 UTC
Easily the most beautiful game here, but the audio was very weird and clunky: the menu music was nonsense, and the SFX in general are awkward (excluding spanking the peasants, that's hilarious). I found myself running arund trying to find more peasants, and I come to see the weil half broken: some UI indicating the wein's status would be very helpful. Also, the melee combat could use some work as it feels unsatisfying: the devils get tridents, but I don't have even a stick?! I know this reads as a very negative comment, but it's because I love this game's concept and would love to see it in further development. PS, nailed the theme and stayed faithful to Dante's, so +1 from me.
Phoenix Fireflower
29. Apr 2021 · 11:50 UTC
I like the concept of having to choose whether to slightly increase difficulty or highly increase it in exchange for restoring hp. Also, great work on the animations. You don't see alot of 3d games made for LD jams.
Raeino
29. Apr 2021 · 11:50 UTC
I was about to say that the game was too hard, but on a second run I used the "Stay in the same circle as long as you can" approach, and it was another story. It was still hard but at the right point, I could use more wardens and barriers (which if used alone were way too weak compared to soul blast) which made it easier to collect souls and get to the next circle whenever I felt ready.

Liked the art style and Hell representation a lot!

Really good game overall :)
Ariorick
29. Apr 2021 · 11:53 UTC
I think this is very impressive for a jam game, there's a lot of quality art and work put into it. Cool exploration of theme. However I'm not sure what this game is trying to be in terms of gameplay. You're basically not able to stop enemies from coming, your defences can be placed only on the roads far from your base and they don't deal much damage to enemies. As I see it you can only run around for one minute and punch poor souls (why? Maybe you didn't have time for it but there definitely should have been special animation). I think you need to emphasize on either tower-defence (give player more agency and allow to build working defences that would hold for some time) or on collecting souls - make some other challenge to running around other then time limit. Maybe just making the game easier would help a lot really
Ariorick
29. Apr 2021 · 11:56 UTC
Also I advice you to go check and rate other games and leave comments to increace your balance and bring more people to see your own game. Most of these people are game dev who can bring valueable feedback
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 15:35 UTC
@deadmanjw @jokubasg @conduit Thank you for your feedbacks folks ! It's true that the game is hard, but it is also mandatory to stay in the sma e circle whenever you can :wink:
It is not a big deal to lose some HP in a level :wink:
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 15:37 UTC
@xeke-death Thank you for your feedback ! It is not a big deal to loose some health, and if you're overwhelmed by enemis, just runi to collect souls and launch a soul blast :fox:
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 15:38 UTC
@yellowsalamander Thank you for this very constructive feedback man :smile:
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 15:38 UTC
@neonian We will definitely check it out !
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 15:39 UTC
@phoenix-fireflower @raeino Thank you for your feedbacks guys ! I think you played the game the way we wanted :smile:
Sadly it's not obvious enough...
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 15:40 UTC
@ariorick Thank you for your feedback man ! It actually was hard to balance the two styles of gameplays...
Adil
29. Apr 2021 · 17:43 UTC
Wow, this game feels so retro and cool, actually i played straight for 15 minutes and i enjoyed this, I really like the idea of the game, but it was pretty hard to save my caravan on the first level
Maybeagoose
29. Apr 2021 · 17:48 UTC
for some reason I can not pass the game I see I'm too casual gamer
AhSpike
29. Apr 2021 · 17:51 UTC
Very cool idea. The animations are amazing. It made me feel bad slapping the poor souls lol. Great job.
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 17:52 UTC
@adil Nice man, thank you :smile:
Did you finish it already ?
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 17:53 UTC
@maybeagoose You're not the chosen one :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Thank you for playing the game :wink:
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 17:53 UTC
@ahspike You slapped the damned to save their souls :angel:
Youhou
29. Apr 2021 · 17:55 UTC
Very fun game, graphics are amazing, and music is a bit sad and repetitive. Early game is a bit hard as you learn how to play, but once you're used to, it gets really easy so maybe you could a bit more difficulty. Overall it's a really good game, grats :)
extar
29. Apr 2021 · 17:55 UTC
Really cool game. I love the graphics and animation, gives the game a lot of personality. The Dante's Inferno theme was spot on too, really nice to see it recreated in a game. I didn't understand where you were able to place the Warden towers, does it need to be a certain distance from the Wain? Some highlighting of permitted areas would be good I think. Anyway, awesome submission, great job!
Cinar
29. Apr 2021 · 17:55 UTC
Hard to believe that its a ludumdare project. You achieved so much in so litte time. Only constructive thing I can say is maybe punch feelings or fighting can be more smooth but this is sth personal to decide. Great job man.
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 17:56 UTC
@youhou Thank you man ! It was a **hell** to balance :fox:
SneakyLemon
29. Apr 2021 · 17:56 UTC
Hey, really cool art! One thing I disliked though is how fast the enemies spawn. It feels like the moment I have enough money to buy a warden or two, there's already 2 or 3 large dudes at my caravan. Punching them doesn't really feel good either. Perhaps a countdown before enemies begin to spawn would balance it out? Enemy grunts were a tad too loud as well, compared to everything else.

I appreciate that you can only run on paths and walk outside of them. It's a neat detail :) All in all, I think this game has potential and could be really fun if properly develop (i.e. not within the limits of a jam). Good job!
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 17:57 UTC
@extar Yes, the defenses cannot be placed within the starting area nor tnear the enemy spawners :wink:
Thank you for playing the game, man :wink:
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 17:58 UTC
@sneakylemon Thank you for this constructive feedback ! The game was very hard to balance, and we wanted the punches to be very weak compared to the defenses :wink:
GrimsBaldruk
29. Apr 2021 · 17:59 UTC
Alors pour commencer je m'appelle Virgile. Merci d'avoir fait un jeu en mon honneur.
Plus sérieusement l'ambiance est là, le jeu est dur, j'ai à peine le temps d'aller tabasser des morts que je perd déjà que le chariot est déjà prit d'assaut et les tour, bien qu'elle ne coutent pas cher, tiennent très peu longtemps, pas assez, en comparaison du "risque" pris. Donc manque d'équilibrage.
Sinon, les asset sont top, surtout fait main et animés donc un travail impressionnant. Petit problème sur les déplacements qui ne sont pas normalisés apparement, on avance bien plus vite sur l'axe horizontal que vertical c'est assez perturbant. Le concept en a sous le capot, ça m'a rappelé BoxHead pour le côté vagues d'ennemis/tourelles. Beaucoup de belles perspective si vous décidez de poursuivre le développement. Bon courage !
Marcionix
29. Apr 2021 · 17:59 UTC
An interesting concept for the theme!
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 18:00 UTC
@cinar Thank you for your feedback man ! I must say we had an awesome artist :smile:
mockthebear
29. Apr 2021 · 18:02 UTC
Stunning graphics you guys made! Also solid gameplay
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 18:07 UTC
@grimsbaldruk Oh BoxHead, un Homme de goût, les bons souvenirs ! :smile:
Pour la normalisation des déplacements, on voulait être raccord avec la perspective (les cases sont deux fois plus larges que longues). Néanmoins, le manque général de perspective donne l'illusion d'être en vue de dessus et le résultat est un peu chelou, je le conçoit :wink:
L'équilibrage n'est pas parfait et a été très douloureux. Avant l'équilibrage, c'était vachement plus dur, mais je crois qu'il y a une technique optimale qui enterre toutes les autres (un équilibrage imparfait en somme :smile:).
Merci pour ton commentaire en tout cas :wink:
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 18:07 UTC
@marcionix @mockthebear Thank you folks !
FadrikAlexander
29. Apr 2021 · 18:08 UTC
The art is amazing but the gameplay was buggy from my side I've tried the game multiple time and always I find the demons near the cart and the map was way big for me to know where to put the towers and even when I get my first tower they'll be already hitting my cart and it's game over and the small punch didn't allow me to hit them fast enough because of the small range, I enjoyed the mood but I think the gameplay needs more work. Good job guys
SneakyLemon
29. Apr 2021 · 18:13 UTC
@wakobu That's fair. Perhaps being able to hold the button to punch, while also making the punches weaker and faster, would make this feel somehow more fluid? Food for thought ;)
Becher
29. Apr 2021 · 18:14 UTC
Game is so hard :) maybe a bit more work on balancing could be enough to make the game really cool!
Your art is great, concept realy innovant, and mecanics simple but efficient (maybe permit to choose action with key 1 2 and 3 ;) )
I highly recommend you to work a little more on the balancing because your game has a great potential for a jam !
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 18:16 UTC
@fadrikalexander If there is too much enemies arround your wain, you have to hurry and collect 60 souls to perform a soul explosion :wink:
Your job is to not be overwhelmed by enemies !
Jorim
29. Apr 2021 · 18:22 UTC
I think this has great potential, but fell just short of really being fun. The art is very unique and the style feels very cohesive. The game feels incredibly polished. It just seems very difficult to the point of making it hard to play. I'm not sure if I am missing some mechanic, but it seems nearly impossible to keep up with the enemies.

In the very first level by the time I had gathered enough souls there were already so many enemies at the wagon that by the time I had placed some towers and cleared the wagon, the wagon was nearly destroyed and enemies would already start to overwhelm the towers. In the later levels I could barely survive long enough to get to the next layer as soon as the timer ran out.

I think the game has a ton of potential, but it was too hard to get into.
GrimsBaldruk
29. Apr 2021 · 20:58 UTC
@wakobu Juste au cas où, vous avez prévu de continuer le développement ?
🎤 Wakobu
29. Apr 2021 · 21:08 UTC
@grimsbaldruk C'est pas impossible, on a une base de code pas trop dégueulasse mais il faudrait ajuster 2-3 trucs
GrimsBaldruk
29. Apr 2021 · 21:22 UTC
@wakobu Ok merci pour ta réponse, bonne continuation à vous !
Kotzi
30. Apr 2021 · 10:57 UTC
Congrats, this is a great submission! The art and aesthetics are great.

I agree with some other comments: it's too hard. Enemies are hard to beat and souls are hard to harvest, so it's a bit frustrating to choose between fighting enemies and getting more souls (which is also hard because they spawn far away from the wain). Maybe the souls could be harvested with just one hit? Maybe adding some time between _waves_? (at first I said "hey, this is a tower defense!" and then I was really surprised about not having _waves_ and time between them hah).
Okamit
30. Apr 2021 · 12:01 UTC
Great aesthetics! Are the sprites actually 3D models? Either way, it looks great and is very fluid!
I agree that enemies spawn a bit fast a bot early, would be nice to have time to experiment and learn the mechanics before ramping it up! Also it feels a bit weird to me that you run much faster horizontal than vertical, makes it look like the character is runing up a slope both up and down.

Otherwise an interesting game, great work!
🎤 Wakobu
30. Apr 2021 · 12:46 UTC
@okamit Hi man ! Thank you for this constructive feedback :wink:
Yes, the sprites are low poly 3D models.
I agree it would have been better if we added a slower start, so the player can use to the interface, controls and different options.
We did the horizontal/vertical speed separation on purpose, to match the isometric perspective but I agree it looks weird if you are not used to it :sweat_smile:
(Congrats again for your gorgeous game)
Zypo
30. Apr 2021 · 14:03 UTC
I liked the graphics and animation. You did a great job with instructions by embedding them into the game. I also think that your idea has a lot of potential, but suffers from balance issues. My largest concerns are that at the start of the level, I run around to collect souls, and then before I can start building defenses, I have to run back to the cart to purchase the defenses, and then I have to place the defenses FAR from where all of the bad guys are, and by then, I'm being swamped already. If I am lucky enough to have a defense placed in time, one bad guy knocks it out with a couple of hits - the game turns into a "wait to hit the button" simulator. Other than that, great job at making a game!
Nivbeth
02. May 2021 · 20:40 UTC
I wish there was some kind of tutorial in the beginning, because I found it pretty hard to understand the mechanics of the game. I must add that I never played something like that before :) (So maybe that's important) Graphics are very pretty and I liked the animations. Overall it’s a really good game, thanks :)
🎤 Wakobu
03. May 2021 · 05:35 UTC
@nivbeth Thank you for your feedback ! Yes the lack of tutorial level is definitely a problem
peterfiftyfour
03. May 2021 · 11:20 UTC
This has original legacy of kain vibes - it's very cool :)
Eden Shazar
03. May 2021 · 12:24 UTC
I feel like this is a strong basis for a good, tight gameplay loop, just imbalanced at the moment. The action-tower defense combination can work very well, and the basic mechanics are there, but I agree with previous comments saying the game is both difficult to get the hang of (took me a while to figure out the wagon sells the defenses!), and after that, to advance in. Still, it looks and sounds good, and is honestly something I'd love to play through after a few more balance changes and feature additions, if you're planning on doing that!
Super Hadoken
12. May 2021 · 12:57 UTC
Nice graphics, sound and all round presentation.
The gameplay was interesting but quite difficult. I found it particularly hard changing back to attack using the mousewheel, I think using Q and E for the items would work better. I think the left click should also change the direction of attack. Overall, solid polished entry.
Curtis Pelissier
14. May 2021 · 15:31 UTC
J'ai déjà fait tous mes retours en live donc encore une fois bien joué pour tout le travail fourni. C'est très propre, c'est fun et c'est assez innovant (au moins c'pas un enième jeu où il faut creuser ^^) Essayez de régler l'équilibrage et ce sera vraiment parfait pour un post-jam :thumbsup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pYtTUKawtI