LudumData

The Demon Trainer by drentsoft

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

Take on the role of a young man looking to stay fit and young, who just happens to visit the wrong gym, run by a demon, eager to feed off the suffering of his trainees or their ageing bodies.

Press Start to begin your workout. Follow the button prompts on screen to try and complete the exercise. Press the buttons on your keyboard that correspond to what you see on screen. Be warned, if you make a mistake the demon will allow the gym to take its toll on you, ageing you terribly.

It's a little sparse, there are no difficulty levels. If I were to continue this project I would consider having the demon react pained when you do well (de-aging yourself slightly) and perhaps make facial expressions for the workouts. Originally I had planned on making a body that reacted the correct stimulus but it didn't happen. The head indicates enough information though.

I was aiming for a sort of rhythm style game.

Have noticed sometimes the prompts go out of sync. Not sure why, didn't have time to fix.

Game can sometimes generate very hard prompts or very long prompts, sorry about this, I didn't get a chance to properly balance it.

If you stick to the end of the tutorial you can set one of the exercises to easy mode. As I personally found the full version of the exercise too hard to do most of the time.

Downloads are provided through a single itch.io link.

Mac and Linux versions are untested.!

screenshotPrompt.PNG

Win, Mac, Linux https://drentsoftgamesltd.itch.io/the-demon-trainer
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/the-demon-trainer

Ratings

Overall 1255th 2.986⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1126th 2.943⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 618th 3.386⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1104th 3.243⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1236th 2.571⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Audio 908th 2.486⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Humor 534th 3.176⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1231th 2.829⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 53🗨️

Feedback

fc85057
05. Apr 2022 · 02:46 UTC
Clever premise. As a fan of rhythm games, I also really appreciate the main gameplay loop. The different key combinations for the exercises works well and make for a good challenge. It's also a nice touch to visually see your character aging as their age increases. Some music could go a long way to tie the aesthetic together. While the tutorial helped to get the controls down, it took me a second to grasp the actual game. It seems like reps were only registering correctly in the tutorial but not the main game.
Harrison Dunn
05. Apr 2022 · 03:06 UTC
Cool little game you've made here. Well done!

I like the take on the theme here. It's a little silly and pretty clear about what it wants to do. The game itself was straightforward, but I think you could have streamlined it a bit more. 10 reps felt like a lot of repetition for each combination. It might keep jam players more engaged if it were even as few as 5 or 3 reps.

I also discovered you could "cheese" it by hitting all the buttons at once, but that was a bit difficult to do simultaneously, and I'm guessing some keyboards won't register all those presses at once.

Overall, good job and congrats for finishing a jam game!
KidderTTV
05. Apr 2022 · 17:34 UTC
Pretty fun actually. This was very straightforward and easy to pickup.
Max Hyper
05. Apr 2022 · 20:36 UTC
Pretty easy to understand game, and very fun to play once you got the hang of it
MrEvilGuy
05. Apr 2022 · 21:33 UTC
arGh my hands! The tactile feedback of the real keys on my keyboard plus key graphics plus key sounds was superb. I could definitely see the premise of this game working really well for proper fitness games connected to a wii or whatever. Prevent the devil from aging you as much as possible haha.
Sodoj
05. Apr 2022 · 21:42 UTC
I have gotten more exercise in this game than I had in the last couple of months IRL.

Despite the off putting art, I actually had a lot of fun and found your take on team rather clever. Good job!
JonL13
05. Apr 2022 · 22:02 UTC
I think the idea for this game is great, but found that it made my hand cramp a bit while playing. I actually had a good bit of fun in the tutorial, then when the game started it felt too difficult. Overall I think it's a well executed game though!
Tobius
06. Apr 2022 · 00:02 UTC
Silly, fun game. I really liked the setup, backstory and mechanics of the game. I don't think 4 key presses worked for me, and the reps didn't really register well after the tutorial (or I was doing something wrong I didn't understand). The sound effects definitely need to be toned down though as they are piercingly loud and shrill. Didn't really seem to fit the theme too well, but I could kind of see it.
🎤 drentsoft
06. Apr 2022 · 01:11 UTC
@tobius Yes, reps are a little broken in the entry version of the game. I've since fixed it in one of those "why is this working now but wasn't before?" moments but I'm still tweaking the feel of the game so I might leave it until after ratings are done to post the updated version. Thanks for the feedback.
stevepdp
06. Apr 2022 · 10:54 UTC
Unfortunately my keyboard doesn't allow for more than a few key presses at once and as such the star pattern is where I had to stop playing. That said...I thought the input system was cleverly designed and I enjoyed what I was able to play. Great submission!
🎤 drentsoft
06. Apr 2022 · 11:10 UTC
@stevepdp Sorry about that, when I was coming up with the design I completely forgot that keyboards have different levels of rollover. I have since wondered if making the game controller based might fix this. Thanks for the feedback.
Skruffye
06. Apr 2022 · 14:41 UTC
It would seem that I'm amongst the accursed who owns a keyboard unfit for use in the Gym of Eternal Youth... :stuck_out_tongue:

I liked the concept and I managed to brute force my way past the four-key combos by spamming the keys repeatedly, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get much further without hurting my fingers, so I can only rate what I got to play... ^^;

Not gonna rate you down for the input issue, though. It's more of an unforeseen hardware issue than a fault with the game!
ryusui
07. Apr 2022 · 02:35 UTC
I don't know for sure but I think the game might be bugged? It gave me the Star Jump routine three times in a row and despite giving me feedback for my button presses I don't think any of my exercises actually got counted towards preventing my aging. Or maybe I misunderstood the mechanics?

At any rate, I love the gameplay concept. The rhythm mechanics actually work quite well, even if I didn't really get to experience any of them other than the Star Jump past the tutorial. (For the record, I didn't turn on Easy mode. ;)) I feel like this would mesh really well with gamepad controls.
Gal Afik
10. Apr 2022 · 01:46 UTC
Interesting game! I enjoyed the humor at the start very much and would have loved a bit more of it thrown in at random points. I think the mechanics are solid and fit the theme very well, but the difficulty ramped up way too fast for my uncoordinated fingers to handle. I wish there was a steady incline in difficulty over time rather than a sudden burst right after the tutorial. Overall, a great jam game, though. Please consider checking out our game as well: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/25-vikings
arya-s
11. Apr 2022 · 17:11 UTC
The control scheme was very innovative and good. I liked linking that kind of input to working out.

I think it's a really solid game!
someone
11. Apr 2022 · 23:16 UTC
Interesting idea, but it got a bit dull doing the same thing for so long.
Linux version works fine, but my keyboard couldn't input the star jump.
bastilo
12. Apr 2022 · 10:17 UTC
Never played a gym game before ☺️
AwesomeAlliterationAlliance
13. Apr 2022 · 22:07 UTC
Cool idea! I have to admit that I just pressed all the keys at once and actually got away with it. :D
Small little detail: Putting y and z as main controls can be quite tricky for people with QWERTZ-Keyboards.
We really liked the voice-over effects!
🎤 drentsoft
14. Apr 2022 · 12:49 UTC
@awesomealliterationalliance thanks for the feedback, especially about the keyboard layout. Godot does have the ability to map to a key location (rather than a specific key) but I'd still have to recognise the keyboard layout and change the label on the button icon. That said I've since moved the game post-jam to controller to get around the rollover issue mentioned in other comments.
LDJam user 267116
15. Apr 2022 · 06:51 UTC
Really fun idea for a rhythm game, great theming and the track select was a nice addition. Good job!
Steve7411
15. Apr 2022 · 21:37 UTC
The core rhythm mechanic is well done. This is a really fun idea, and a unique take on the theme.