SensenCemetery by Wouter52
In SensenCemetery you try to escape the Sensenmann. As you are running from him, you'll notice that the gameworld is filled with tombstones, those are the places where previous players met their fate. The place is slowly turning into a Cemetery!
As you are running, you have a view tactics that may help - The Sensenmann does not overtake you, if you do not slow down. Jump over bushes and dead trees to keep your speed! - By holding shift, you can see how close he is. If you have a stone, you can throw it at him using left-click. He'll get startled for a moment - On straight pathways, it is advised to use your running shoes. That way you'll gain speed for a moment. - Pickup stones and shoes by running over them
I advise you to do the tutorial first. It is short, sweet and forgiving :-)
How far can you go until you meet your faith?
P.s. This game is in theory endless, I see that some people get stuck at around 288m. Which I understand, there is a very obscured path to the left over there which could be easily be overlooked :-) Damn auto-generated levels!! :grin:
Extra info for curious people
Here is some extra info, it is not required to play the game :-)
Known bugs (or features??):
- Yea, I know: you can draw all over the game-window when designing your tombstone, I would say: have fun with it haha
- The game is a bit unforgiving. The post-jam version should make it a bit easier. So after rating, you could try that one by pressing "P" on the menu screen.
Victories:
The game has been written in javascript and uses raycasting technology. First I felt bad for using an existing demo-code base, but looking at the result I am very glad that I choose this route! The codebase is almost unrecognizeable now, and there are lots of little victories littered all around the game, like: - Pseudo-random level generation, that actually works! - Throwing objects - All the graphics have been made by myself, meaning that I didn't have to opt out - There is a seed-mode added just one hour before submission - The system of uploading tombstone-locations and putting them in the game (with design and all) is just SO AWESOME! That was an idea I had all weekend and I was only able to implement it in the last six hours, as the code was ready enough at that point. - There are actually nightly builds availible, check my website to see all 16 of them :-) The previous jams I would lock myself in (socially) until the game was finished. Now I made sure to give playable versions to everyone who wanted to test it.
Changelog
Version 1.1:
- Disabled a key to activate debug-mode to keep the scores fair
- Stones won't be thrown when mouse is not captured in window yet.
- You can restart the game when then Sensenmann got you
- Scoring in top of screen turnes red when it goes under 0
- performance improvements
- non visable sprites (at horizon) won't be drawn anymore
- The game knows if it is running slow and tries to speed it up by changing the resolution automaticly
- The Sensenmann walks the correct speed on slower systems
Version 1.2
- The Sensenmann had a bug where it would still kill you when scared away with stone. (fixed)
- An option to make the game easier, this is a post jam version. Play regular version before scoring my game. Then feel free to play an easier version. You can toggle it in-game*
- High score table has an indicator for post-jam high scores
- Performance improvements:
- There will be fewer flowers on your screen now.
Version 1.2 (with post-jam features enabled)
- Movement is a bit slower
- The Sensenmann moves a bit slower
- You get a bigger headstart
- Minimap is less cryptic
- Special 'post jam' tag in scoreboard
Version 1.3
- Performance improvements
- Sprites in background won't be loaded until you are close-by
- Tombstones without design, won't load their empty design
- Some clipping issues with sprites. In certain cases sprites would end up freezing your game. This is resolved (hopefully)
- Some part of the tomb-stone loading process is done in the initialization-stage of the game
Version 1.4 (with post-jam features enabled)
- Pay respects by wandering around the level looking for tombstones. Can you find yours? To enable this feature, first press "P" in the main menu to activate post-jam features, then press "F" to pay respects at the cemetery.
- In 'pay respects mode', when at the furthest tombstone, the level cuts off to prevent people from using this mode as practice-ground. Also movement has been slowed down in this mode, as your character is not running for its life :sweat_smile:
If you find any tombstones with inappropriate drawings on them, please let me know (screenshot to wouspe@gmail.com). I can set a flag to disable the design for that stone.
Ratings
| Overall | 688th | 3.531⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 785th | 3.29⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 520th | 3.48⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 213th | 4.071⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 660th | 3.684⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 671th | 3.188⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 857th | 2.659⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 238th | 3.939⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 70🗳️ | 92🗨️ |
Later today I'll check out your game, thanks for your feedback :-)
Found the game pretty tricky - took me a couple plays to understand what I was doing even with the tutorial.
The mood was great and definitely had me wanting to run for my life!
@hcs-hades
The game is a bit hard indeed, I think that it gets easier every time, because you get to know the layout :-) I did not have time to balance it out a bit more. Maybe the levelseed could have been diffrent, so there is less confusing junctions where you can get stuck. In theory the game is endless
but I liked the idea of seeing the graves of others and being able to personalize it! it gives an almost community side to the game
Thank you for your feedack @flawed-gamer !
- This game would benefit a lot from stereo panning of the audio to where the Sensenmann is. I never felt like I could really know where he is, and the tutorial kinda made me expect he'd always be behind me.
- When the game starts you have to click the screen to activate the mouse cursor movement, but that also makes you waste your initial rock.
- It seems to lag a lot whenever I hit a tree.
- The gravestone customization is a pretty neat and impressive idea! Ultimately kinda pointless though since you can't see anything running wildly through the map xd
I found the music scheme increasing as death arrives a great idea, but sometimes I didn't see death coming (even using shift) and lost, maybe it came from the sides.
I also didn't understand how that map below works, and I ended up getting lost and falling into some dead ends.
Congratulations!
I just released version 1.1, the following of your feedback made it in:
- The game knows now if the mouse is capured, if not then it won't throw your stone
- I made some performance improvements, hopefully it helps. I don't know if the tree problem will be fixed with that. The game is designed so that trees will slow you down, maybe you mean that?
The audio panning would be awesome! I just looked it up, but it is a little complex to add afterwards I think. Still, I'll keep it in mind for the next jam!
And yes, the tombstones just whizz by as you run for your life ^^" I did not think about that, but the feature is awesome indeed! I like that players can have a lasting impression on the game. It's like a little piece of LD history that gets preserved this way
I'll take a look if I can find why you ran directly into him, that sounds scary!
That said i think its one of the really good interpretations. And it actually manages to create a sense of horror when playing.
The problem is: i suck at the game and die after at most 20 seconds everytime. I feel like the level layout is so confusing and combined with the nice retro but hard to make out graphics makes for a tough time. Maybe the speed could be a bit lower as looking back would be a cool mechanic if i wouldnt bump into something immediately.
Also like the tombstone idea its a nice little way to impress me.
I would like you all to know that I added an option in-game that makes it a bit easier (post-jam version), when starting the game, you can press "P" and then the game will be a bit more forgiving. The movement is a bit slower, the Sensenmann is a bit slower and the minimap will be less cryptic :smile:
If you make it into the top 10, there will be a special 'post jam' tag next to your score though :smirk:
But from what the description says, it's a miracle you got something like this done! You've earned a pat on the back, but I can't do that through the internet... disappointing.
I tried refreshing and switching browsers/game versions but nothing helped. Not sure what's causing it. I have good internet (maybe not ping-wise) and a decent spec'd computer too.
I liked how the graves added to the look of the maze, while also actually indicating other player's death points.
After adding quite a few of my own to the pile I finally managed to make it onto the leaderboard, so all the struggle was worth it
Great game! Here's to hoping the bug's capture is inevitable :P
I just updated the game with some major performance improvements. If you would like, you could try again without lagging issues. If the problem persists, please tell me! Then I'll look into it even deeper :-)
Thank you for your virtual pet on my back! That means a lot!
I love the idea of being able to see other players' tombstones and know how well you're doing relative to them, I love when LD games have those sorts of multiplayer aspects. I was a little surprised to see so many tombstones right at the beginning!
It seems to work fine on Firefox
Thanks for reporting that Brave browser has some issues, I'll check it out :-) And also thanks that you tried again and for confirming that the update was an improvement :smile:
Congrats on 288m! That is really good!
Still, I like the aesthetic, fast pace, and the generally spooky vibe.
As for the mouse movement, I agree that it is a bit fast. That's why there is a post-jam version where the mouse sensetivity has been decreased. When you start the game and then press "P", the post-jam version will be activated. Maybe you'll have a bit more fun in that mode if you would like to try again :-)
The ambience is a great idea! This year I had as a goal to make my own music, but that was almost not a reality. Comming up with a jaws like dundundundun sound was all I could come up with in the last view hours ^^" Next time I'll make it a higher priority
To activate this feature, first press “P” in the main menu to activate post-jam features, then press “F” to pay respects at the cemetery.
Well done! Impressive for a game jam!
I am a gamepad player, so I had a hard time with the controls, especially the shift key, so I did not get really far.
Graphics is nice, sound is ... stressful.
Congratulations to the complete, very polished game!
Playing it again, the music didn't bother me as much-- I think since those two notes are constantly playing in the tutorial, I got tired of it quickly. But in actual gameplay, it's more of a warning sound than music. Also, nice job designing all the graphics!
Glad you liked it a bit better :smile:
The tombstones of other players were a great idea.
It did take several rounds before I figured out the route at the start. The minimap at the bottom is not great.
I had to refresh my browser a fair amount since the performance dropped after a few rounds so you have a fair few similar looking gravestones from me. It would have been nice if it remembered me.
I got to 5th place (485m). That will do for now.
Edit! Damn your highscore is awesome, you came further than I bothered to go durning development (which means that you saw more of my game than I did myself haha)
The concept is simple but works well, and the idea of showing tombstones where other player died is awesome (and I'm thinking that it's the kind of idea I would love to have, to replace a basic UI leaderboard).
The visuals are ok, I'm not a big fan of the style, but they work well and they are consistent!
The music was perfect with your theme. I think there is a small issue when looping (it's not seemless, so it bothers a little bit) but it is still very nice!
Good entry!
Thank you for the compliments! :smiley: