King of the Ring by Lomby

[raw]
made by Lomby for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!

There can only be one King of the Ring so step up and defend your honour!

Everyone wants a piece of your crown but how long can you survive. Every 10 seconds new contenders enter the ring and believe me, it can get quite crowded. Flush out these impeccably timed adversaries and avoid being shuffled off to oblivion.

Also available on Itch below if the embed above fails to load.

(Our first game jam & published game so please be nice!)

Edit 6th Oct:

Controls:

a / d - left / right

w / space - jump

i - grab / throw

Game made in Unity & Piskel for the graphics.

Thought I'd add in a retroactive Dev Log & some of the progress gifs / images in case it's of interest! Took us a little while to settle on an idea (we weren't very prepared for this theme) but eventually agreed on a Royal Rumble type game with a new wrestler entering every 10 seconds.

Our runner up ideas were playing as a deckhand on a pirate ship (taking orders / plugging holes in the ship / bailing water etc), or a hero of the village type game where you had 10 seconds to find various things to feed the beast/monster terrorizing the village!

We looked into some classics like the Burrito Bison series, Guacamelee, RetroMania Wrestling and the upcoming indie game Punch-A-Bunch for some inspiration.

We started work on a basic gamescreen (boxes for the ring / players / enemies), a basic UI, and the character controller. We wanted to have movements like grabs, throws, slams, and drop attacks (like an elbow drop) but most of these ended up getting cut due to time constraints. Jake had some fun chasing down some bugs implementing the grab mechanic: Grab.gif

While playtesting some more and brainstorming we came up with the idea to go for playing cards to tie into the Royal part of the Royal Rumble, with an idea to build up to a special move if you manage to knock out each of the cards of a suit to make a royal flush. (We might still try that for a future update!) I had a little go at my first pixel art (I've watched a lot on YouTube, but this was my first try at it!) but was really pleased with the result. Diamond idle #1.gif

A few of the actions and other other characters were coming together: animations.gif

And a few other bugs keeping the grab and throw testing amusing: rotate.gif

We cut down the scope and got the game to a stable(ish) state with about 3 hours left, so we (luckily) decided to test out the submission process to avoid any last minute panic. Unfortunately, there were a few issues uploading so we had to scrap some quality of life changes we were hoping to include, but we're going to try to add some of the cut scope over the next few days (and maybe submit the updated game in the extra category). I'll drop a link here if we do!

Thanks for playing & looking forward to future jams!

Jake & Alex

Ratings

Overall 1070th 2.964⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1122th 2.643⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 914th 2.927⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Theme 746th 3.488⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 910th 3.048⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 277th 3.427⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Mood 940th 3.025⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Given 67🗳️ 66🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 239741
03. Oct 2022 · 23:05 UTC
The game presents a really small ring, so the enemies pile up fast. There's also no visual distinction between the enemies and the players. Maybe if it had a bigger ring it would've been more fun, but for now, it's disappointing.

2/10
Mr_DanH
03. Oct 2022 · 23:07 UTC
Fun concept, although it only took me a couple of seconds to throw the opponents out so I had a lot of waiting around. Also, I appreciate the literal kings in the ring.
CrimOudin
04. Oct 2022 · 00:37 UTC
Fun concept. Art and music are good. I just wish the mechanics were a little more in depth. I cleared everyone off so quick and it never got any harder.
amarokczukay
04. Oct 2022 · 17:16 UTC
my first game was messy due to the many contenders (and not being able to distinguish the player from them) but at 2nd run, i was able to push off all the enemies fast before next wave
Rawb
04. Oct 2022 · 21:29 UTC
Nice game! I love the look of the wrestler and the background really fits the game. It would have been nice to have the difficulty increase a bit as you go because I really enjoy the vibe of the whole game.
ElmoEinstein
05. Oct 2022 · 00:10 UTC
I loved the concept and the art all though I have 2 complaints. I think that the enemy spawning should scale up as i could just stand there and throw them off and the play needed a different sprite to tell him apart from other boxers (maybe just blue clothes instead of red) Other than that a great game
Russ Moonbase
05. Oct 2022 · 01:34 UTC
I wanted to see if I could get to 20 and I did it!

![Screenshot 2022-10-04 193236.png](///raw/e8c/42/z/52374.png)

I had fun chucking some guys out of the ring. I wish the sprites were different colors so I could see if I was picking up the enemy or they picked me up.

Nice work for your first jam! Looking forward to playing your future games.
Human Writes Code
05. Oct 2022 · 02:28 UTC
Congrats your first game. I lived the art style in this and the controls felt snappy and responsive. It was a little bit too easy to clear the ring almost immediately after the next wave arrived. Increasing the spawn rate and randomizing the spawn location may have helped. Some kind of stamina bar or something that limited your ability to grab enemies for long periods may also have helped. Overall, it's a stable, well made game with plenty of potential!
Trusty
05. Oct 2022 · 03:23 UTC
I am not king of the ring :( . Fun game!
LDJam user 298496
05. Oct 2022 · 09:43 UTC
Nice concept, well put together. It can be fairly difficult to work out which wrestler you are, especially after you've been picked up. Perhaps the player should be a totally different colour vs. the other wrestlers. Great job!
Leonel
05. Oct 2022 · 09:48 UTC
when it gets crowded it scrambles my eyes. kept trying to grab one as it was falling. I'd have loved that. a heap of fun!
wavertron
05. Oct 2022 · 09:54 UTC
Well done on finishing your first game. Its playable, easy to understand. Nice big sprites. For a first effort its great.
Jaked
05. Oct 2022 · 10:50 UTC
Thanks for your kind (and honest!) feedback. Sadly we just ran out of time to polish the game! But it was great fun making it, and we learnt a lot in the experience. We'll be better prepared next time. We'll probably iron out some obvious issues and upload as part of the Extra jam so keep an eye out for an update :)
Sanemsky
05. Oct 2022 · 11:08 UTC
Great first game! It was a bit hard for me to play but it's just me. Well done guys!
Genpaku
05. Oct 2022 · 14:27 UTC
Cool idea :) it's hard a little when there are many of them in one place but overall game have potential
Sohei
05. Oct 2022 · 15:35 UTC
This is very fun idea. Spamming 'I' button leads to easy winning. Perhaps some kind of cooldown mechanics could be used to make a bigger variety of situations.
paloobi
05. Oct 2022 · 16:14 UTC
I had fun throwing people out of the ring, and liked the art. Well done!
Logan Hughes
06. Oct 2022 · 01:45 UTC
This could become a more interesting game if there was more to do after throwing everyone off and the other kings became smarter over time! Fun concept!
FadrikAlexander
06. Oct 2022 · 04:55 UTC
you have a nice concept, the game needs a bit more moves and sprites to complete it and a bit more enemies I was able to throw enemies in seconds so most of the game I'm setting there and just waiting for the second patch hhh, congratz on your first jam <3
Darkmax14
06. Oct 2022 · 08:15 UTC
The concept is pretty neat, the enemies don't spawn nearly fast enough though. I could clean up the whole ring in a couple seconds and wound up waiting a lot for new enemies.
PineappleGladiator
06. Oct 2022 · 11:25 UTC
Very nice game! Had a lot of fun playing!
LDJam user 302468
06. Oct 2022 · 14:19 UTC
It's a great concept and love the retro art style. I felt like Roman Reigns at the royal rumble destroying the competition. It would be good to have the player look different as it is difficult to determine which one is you if you have a lot of enemies on screen and would have been nice to have a variety of waves (more enemies, random spawn points) to add to the challenge - we found the balancing hard with our entry too. I'll keep an eye out for your extra submission. Thank you for the submission :).
ccsjk98
06. Oct 2022 · 16:52 UTC
It was pretty funny though I was always confused about which king was I XD
🎤 Lomby
06. Oct 2022 · 17:06 UTC
Hi everyone, thanks so much for playing our game and all the great feedback! As @jaked said above we kinda ran out of time to add all the features we wanted, so I've just added a kind of retroactive Dev Log in the description if you want to see what we had planned!

There is a slight shading difference between the player and the enemies, but it's clear by all of the comments (
@adamphoebe @russ-moonbase @matt-ravenhall @leonel @genpaku @ccsjk98 ) that it wasn't anywhere near enough!

(We actually weren't too sure if it might make it more fun if you couldn't easily see you character to add to the chaos / feeling of getting overwhelmed in the rumble, but on reading your notes we think we're going to try to make all the enemies at least different suits from the player).

The difficulty curve is definitely an issue too ( @mr-danh @crimoudin @rawb @logan-hughes @fadrikalexander @darkmax14 ). We're thinking of adding more potential spawning points above the ring, with a counter to track the number of enemies in the ring so that we can start spawning more enemies if the player clears the ring quickly, and fewer if they're struggling with it.
Thanks also for the feedback @elmoeinstein @amarokczukay @house-trap-charlie for pointing out both issues above!

Great ideas @human-writes-code & @sohei , especially about limiting the player with either a cooldown / stamina bar. As you say it's a little too easy to just spam the throw to clear the ring at the moment!

And finally thanks for all the support & kind words @wavertron @sanemsky @paloobi @pineapplegladiator & everyone else! :smile:
ElmoEinstein
06. Oct 2022 · 21:53 UTC
@lomby a good game dev is one that is able to take feedback. Keep up the good worK!
Jag
07. Oct 2022 · 03:00 UTC
It was a fun and interesting game while it lasted! Quite a funny idea, I love that everyone in the ring are kings haha. I got a little bored after getting 20 points because all I was doing was picking people up and throwing them out of the ring, but maybe thats just me. Nevertheless, thank you for making a game!
JonnyLynx
07. Oct 2022 · 18:07 UTC
Funny idea.. reminds me on the king from the series Disenchantment :D Maybe some more interactions or attacks?

Keep on doing !
spacefudge
08. Oct 2022 · 08:10 UTC
You really set the 8bit boxing mood with this one. But was confused with which character I was
jcor
08. Oct 2022 · 08:11 UTC
I found this game to be pretty funny! It's pretty easy to win, there's no distinction between my character and these others (which might be actually add to it!), and it's an uninteresting take on the theme.

The pixel art is decent and I'm so glad you added a music and sfx volume slider.
Weine
08. Oct 2022 · 08:20 UTC
Congratulations on a first ldjam game! Don't worry too much about the scope cuts - we've all been there. At least you got around to adding scoring and lose conditions, something we didn't find time for in our own game =(
adjo
20. Oct 2022 · 20:51 UTC
It's a nice submission, I think the player and enemies should have looked a bit different. I kept getting confused to which one I was :sweat_smile: