Hearts Ablaze by Jon Topielski
A western shoot-em-up where your hearts are your everything. Shoot through enemies and rock with your hp, and use it to buy awesome powerups from the shop. Delay your inevitable Demise.

Changelog: - fixed immortal bug, no movement issue
| Link | https://jontopielski.itch.io/hearts-ablaze |
| Link | https://jontopielski.itch.io/hearts-ablaze |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/hearts-ablaze |
Ratings
| Overall | 16th | 4.367⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 11th | 4.398⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 295th | 3.694⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 206th | 4.082⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 66th | 4.531⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 11th | 4.542⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 339th | 3.596⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 189th | 4⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 29🗳️ | 63🗨️ |
The game is just fun. It had me coming back for multiple rounds. Congrats on completing an awesome jam entry!
- the music SFX are nice
- good polish over all
- had a few situations were the gun seemed to shoot in a different direction then I was aiming
- looks like someone was really hoping for the 'single resource' theme to win.
At first, I have encountered a bug where I was not able to move, after refreshing the page is was fine.
It's a quite impressive, congrats!
really loved the graphics, especially the dead animations and bullets were done really well
oh oh oh and the yeeeeehaw sfxs and music nailed that western feel <3 <3 <3
I also encountered the movement bug a few times (had to come to these comments to find out you could move) and it's a little difficult IMO, hard to last more than a few levels which is a shame bc I want to see all the upgrades
All around this game was awesome! Loved the feeling and western aesthetic. The sound design specifically was very nice. The only thing I had to doc points on was the innovation. I've seent his game concept done quite a lot in game jams so it's not super original.
Other than that, great work :D
All that being said, it is a game jam, and I REALLY liked this one. The bullet drawing on the menu was a nice touch!
I survived something like 15seconds to 90 seconds, so ti's an incredibly fast game. I was wondering if scattering collectables, which give you a lil bit of health would make the game longer, while still keeping you in motion - if well balanced this might be cool.
I also really enjoyed the art. I especially loved the heart graphic, which felt a lot like from amiga games, while the rest of the game felt more flat shaded. While I really like the heart, I wondered if a more similar artstyle for it, than for the rest of the game might be better.
Anyways, cool thing you got going, it's one of those games for which a ton could be added post jam.
Things I liked:
- There is so much polished feedback that adds to the gamefeel. From the screen shake when you blow up terrain, to the many little FX animations. Even the little message that tells you when there is 1 enemy left is such a nice quality of life touch. The whole thing just feels insanely polished for a jam game.
- I loved the audio. The music is catchy and perfectly matches the tone of the game. All the SFX that you need is there and sounds high quality.
- The use of a single resource for time, health, and ammo is a really cool idea and makes this game fit the theme perfectly. It really did feel inevitable that I was going to lose (and quickly!)
- I love the way you implemented upgrades where instead of picking them up in the world, you have to make a decision between levels. This adds a nice aspect of strategy (especially since you can skip upgrades)
- The art is a very cool style. Any single screen shot wouldn't be some super impressive piece of art but it's all so readable and useable in a game setting that while you're playing you're just thinking "damn this game looks good". Really great job, Alphons!
What I think could be improved:
- I did feel like the difficulty could be scaled back slightly (on Easy) so that you could have a little more time to learn the mechanics without having to restart over and over. Then you could move onto the harder difficulties without having already played the game 10 times.
- I think it could be explained a little more clearly that things like the shotgun or the exploding shot use a lot more health to fire. You kinda just have to learn this stuff by trial and error. I wouldn't say this would be an issue in a full game, but for a jam game I think it's good to overexplain (people only want to spend like 10 minutes playing these generally)
- While I love the art, it looks very grid based which doesn't match the free movement very well. However, I'm assuming this was probably a choice because of the lack of time with a jam. Also, to save some time I think you could have gotten away with a single 3/4 facing direction for the enemies.
- I think some health pickups on the ground would have been a nice touch and served to let you extend the runs a little longer if you were quick in your exploration
Overall, I was blown away by this game. Like I said, I think it's my favourite I've played so far!
The aesthetics are fun and coherent, the gameplay is fast enough to encourage multiple attempts, and the upgrades are interesting. Amazing work.
Overall a very good entry!
To start off, the controls are well-mapped and intuitive. The animation (and the moving camera) is fluid, and the pixel art is well-drawn! The music fit the mood of the look that the game is going after, and the sound effects are well-polished. Though I usually would criticize the audio for being too polished than the graphics, I'll let this slide since it's really well-done. The UI and the hand-drawn, pixellated font faces also add to the immersive experience.
As for the gameplay, using one's own life as their ammo is quite the innovative approach, since this sort of feature I usually see in RPGs, but tailoring it to a near-roguelike shooter is what makes it on the innovative side, making this also a survival game. The randomized powerups at the end of a level are also a plus.
One critique I have is that I could not get past the second level since the player character retains the life over from the first level. Maybe have it so that the player's life can be partially restored depending on difficulty and on how quickly one takes care of the enemies in the room.
Overall, a pretty great game! Congratulations! :thumbsup: