Shoot Them Deeper by pndaa
Goal
This is a shoot them up game where you need to count how many enemies you killed or saw not to lose a life when the doors appear. If your answer is valid, you’ll get a free bonus.
There is no end, the goal is just to do the best score and go the deepest possible. You win points by killing enemies and by going to next levels.
Controls
Keyboard: Arrows or asdw to move. Space to shoot. Controller: Left stick do move. Any button to shoot. R: Reset M: Mute
You can play with your friends, they just have to join by pressing Space or Start.
Help
At one point you'll see this:
You need to count the number of enemies you kill and see that are pointed by the red arrow in the image. Here the sphericals blue enemies. A few meters later you will see this:
In the red square you can read what you need to restitute. Here the number of "blue" enemies you SAW. Go to the door that correspond to the correct answer. In the image: 0, 2 or 4 (red arrows).
If you respond correctly you get a bonus, if you don't you lose a life.
Good luck.
Authors
Florian Dufour
Matthieu Saül
Music
Florian Dufour - Soundcloud
Voice
Quentin Calabrese
External Assets
Skybox
- Skybox PolycarbonGames - https://ko-fi.com/s/b2c4a301c6
Fonts:
- Horseman
- lazer84
- USAngel
Particles
- Sherbbs Particle Collection : https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/sherbb-s-particle-collection-170798
Sounds
- Not made by us (we still made the music).
Screenshot
| Link | https://pndaa.itch.io/shoot-them-deeper |
| Link | https://pndaa.itch.io/shoot-them-deeper |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/shoot-them-deeper |
Ratings
| Overall | 651th | 3.662⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 735th | 3.459⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 452th | 3.625⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1380th | 3.257⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 660th | 3.878⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 321th | 3.824⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1032th | 2.5⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 893th | 3.514⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 36🗳️ | 50🗨️ |
@barelyevengames Sometimes it is not the total count but the count of enemies you killed. Also the "ghost" are telling you which enemy type you need to count.
@ubershmekel : You true, it's hard to keep focus on counting and play against mobs :) But more you try more you become better. If you play with two player or more it could be easier.
@skoopidy : thank you. Particules and glowing objects can make more difficult to see some time. It's why I advice player to anticipate observations and make kill in the right moment :)
The idea behind the game is weird, but it twists the brain in a good way, which is always refreshing. What comes to the theme, I feel that going deeper does not serve a gameplay purpose here. It seems to be purely visual as the player drops lower to another level.
The player onboarding is clever as it's built on the level itself. This could be skippable after the player has been it through once. It would speed up the process of getting back to the game after death.
Also nice that the player HP is visualized on the player's cube. The more damage the more damaged the cube gets. Although it's not clear at the beginning when it's going to break completely just by looking at the cube. It could be clearer for example if the cube would flash red when it's the last HP.
I like the aesthetics of the game. Always nice to see retro stuff. Overall nice entry. Well done!
@all : We are happy to see you enjoy our game :) We make it in the meaning to do a polish game.
If you have the possibility to play with a friend, brother/sister... by using a controller, I advice you to try it. It's add more fun. ;)
The red enemies were a bit too tough without power ups.
Superb work.
Good job :slight_smile:
The counting was used a bit too much for my taste, it could have been used more sparingly. Wish I could try it with a friend, seems like a cool idea also.
Congrats on making a fun and beautiful game! :rocket:
Awesome work!
Notes:
- It was a bit difficult to determine the players current health, and took a few plays to notice how the model would deteriorate
- The text on the play field would blend into the game a bit, making it difficult to read. Though after a while it became apparent what you needed to do.
- The falling segments were a bit jittery on WebGL (minor issue really)
TWo main imrpovements could be improving the readability and also making it clearer how much health you had! Apart from that it was good stuff :)
We take note of your advices for improvements.
You did a nice job on the audiovisual aspect, I like the mood that you created. The counting of the objects is a fun touch and even though I thought it was a bit quirky at first, it does actually add an additional layer to the game since you're both shooting/dodging stuff and keeping count simultaneously.
Congratulations on your LD48 entry!
The only thing that throws me off, and it's a very minor point (especially in a jam) is that the mechanic of counting seems so out of place for the other gameplay. There's no real context that makes you think, "Oh, I'm going to be counting things". That said, as much as I like the counting mechanic as a bonus booster, I'm really not sure the best metaphor for it! Either way, excellent execution, some extra clarity on the counting goals would be nice but it works as is, very cool idea to take advantage of player attention in that way to add some risk/reward dynamics.