Across Death Street by Jonathan Lorenz

[raw]
made by Jonathan Lorenz for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

ADS<em>Screen1.jpg You play as a robot rescuer in a zombie apocalypse. Your goal is to help the humans reach as safe place. ADS</em>Screen3.jpg

DISCLAIMER: The original upload was VERY buggy. It is still accessible in the itchio page but it is basically unplayable.

This is a classic case of overscoping. The original goal was to have an inverted tower defense, where you build and upgrade a team of survivor and go through different groups of zombie. However, just coding a very simple AI took me way longer than expected. So now we have a prototype where the survivors follow the robot and fight zombies. But that's pretty much it.

Ratings

Overall 1032th 3.25⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 998th 3.096⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 679th 3.327⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1338th 2.692⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 557th 3.404⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 904th 2.583⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 744th 3.44⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

JM-Janzen
05. Apr 2022 · 23:36 UTC
404 page on link? Please let us know when it's available!
🎤 Jonathan Lorenz
14. Apr 2022 · 13:48 UTC
@jm-janzen Sorry about that. Forgot to tick "public" on the itchio page ^^' It is now fixed, thank you for letting me know.
Itskdog
15. Apr 2022 · 11:53 UTC
Nice job with this game. The zombies were not attacking me at all. You might want to add to the ai if the zombie gets hit it will agro the player.
olafstromberg
15. Apr 2022 · 12:45 UTC
Very well done. The zombies were no threat at all so it got boring quite quickly, but the gameplay has potential. I liked the lighting effects.
pollahard
15. Apr 2022 · 13:12 UTC
I really liked that there was training in the game. Good graphics, everything works without bugs
sacredbacon
15. Apr 2022 · 13:26 UTC
Cool idea, great graphics and effects. I like the movement and the mob mechanics too. I agree with the other commenters that the zombies could have provided more of a challenge. Awesome game!
AMastryukov
15. Apr 2022 · 14:32 UTC
Interesting game, reminded me a bit of Project Zomboid but in proper 3D. It's a bit lackluster in terms of content and challenge since I was able to easily stay back from zombies and shoot at them without aggravating them in any way, which resulted in the game just being about collecting survivors and shooting zombies from a distance. I liked how you used Synty Studios assets, I actually used this exact pack for a project last year.

It would be interesting to see this expanded with team management element where you could control the survivors to fix the machine or improve it in some way as time goes on, becoming a more powerful version (e.g. clicking the survivors to collect scrap, add weapons, etc), going from a small robot with a single gun into a tank-like super zombie-killing machine.
PhyscoKillerMonkey
15. Apr 2022 · 17:32 UTC
Cool idea with potential but like you say in the description in it's current state there isn't much gameplay. Graphics look neat, there is a good atmosphere with the lighting, but game was pretty jittery for me.
MachWerx
15. Apr 2022 · 18:01 UTC
Great start! The assets, lighting, and animation all look great. One suggestion for future games would be to put in additional keyboard controls for things like right-click because some people use trackpads where right-click isn't as easy to use.
ricardopino
15. Apr 2022 · 18:08 UTC
I like the main idea, be the One Who help to scape from the zombies, i think it could be a little better if you balance a little the dificulty, the love the lowpoly and the camara position, and the whole atmosphere en general, Great Job
Evileptic
15. Apr 2022 · 18:21 UTC
PLZ GIVE ME STARS :v: Good job btw… :smirk:
BlueDingo
16. Apr 2022 · 03:25 UTC
Having the player being a character that can't be hurt by the zombies and instead have to try and keep others alive is a really neat idea and with more time this could be a really cool game.

Something that would be neat to add would to allow the player to see the trajectory of where they are aiming because it felt like a lot of the time where I aimed wasn't where it shot.
Roka Josh
16. Apr 2022 · 11:15 UTC
Fun game that you should take further. Like others have said it felt very difficult to aim accuratly at times, so tightning up the shooting and adding in more elements such as upgrades could really make this into a great full game. Good job!
BurnsDesigns
17. Apr 2022 · 16:14 UTC
I think an adjustment I'd make is moving the camera more forward from the vehicle. Giving more sight ahead. Although that'd diminish sight of your little human horde. So, perhaps play with camera facing and offset to see what feels right.

I never knew I'd enjoy a game playing as a deadly shopping cart! Awesome!
lilkrit
18. Apr 2022 · 12:32 UTC
Cool game, but unfortunately the performance isn't the best :/
TOminerTV
21. Apr 2022 · 19:37 UTC
Good job. Great game, but it doesn't really fit the topic i think. Also the aim sometimes a little bit wierd.
bloodycoin
22. Apr 2022 · 21:18 UTC
Interesting concept. I like the twist to classic zombie survival genre that you are a robot actually.

As you said, it currently lacks gameplay. I am sure you have idea what you want to do with the game, but just throwing out a few here:
* Lower robot targeting (turret turning) speed, so then it actually matters where you position yourself.
* Robot could collect and provide equipment to survivors.
* Maybe you need to convince survivors first somehow (dialogue, give item, threaten) for them to join you.
* Maybe a switch to turn-based combat could be a thing, so the player then could control all the human survivors removing the need to write AI for them.


The environment looks great and the thematic lighting helps here. But in the future, I advice when determining the position where to shoot, specify which layers to hit (and ignore) in the raycast checks (keep environment object in separate layer for this reason) as currently tries to hit the base of the lamp of the lamp, when accidentally clicking on the lamp mesh (same happened with trucks and other barricades). I would expect the click to go through the lamp.

![death-street-lamp.png](///raw/2d4/b1/z/4e610.png)

By the way, well done making it impossible to hit survivors - would have killed at least a few as currently they behave the same as zombies :joy:

P.S. Nice twist when reaching the final sanctuary :upside_down:
🎤 Jonathan Lorenz
26. Apr 2022 · 09:50 UTC
@bloodycoin Someone actually reached the end :) Thanks for the great suggestions! Next LD I'll just (try to) scope down ^^