Words Matter by Alex5041
First level is kinda badly designed, basically you have to create combination of 2 trees until there are 7 trees.
For other levels it is enough to create a word combination stated at the top only once.
Also, bullets are a drop too, they are not hovering in the air (unless you decreased their speed to zero)
Controls:
Main
WASD to move,
Left mouse button to shoot,
Right mouse button to pick words.
M to mute music, N to mute sounds.
Word manipulation
Spacebar to swap non-sign words (empty cells swap too!).
Right click to delete a word.
Word rules:
There are 3 ways to create a statement: 1. Two same symbols: tree, tree => more trees 2. Sign (+, -) and object: minus, ruler => make smaller 3. Sign and two objects, one of which is modifier (heart, boot and ruler are modifiers): plus, bullet, heart => bullet will pierce targets
From level3, each 10 seconds target changes, from player to enemy. Non neutral statement will affect current target, (more trees is a neutral statement, but more bullets is not)
Notes: 1. If you don't get hit, something might happen 2. Movable trees are not a thing :(
Credits:
- Programming: Godot 3.3
- Music: Bosca Ceoil
- SFX: jsfxr
- Art: Aseprite and Playscii: modified textmode, characters from CHUNKY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4hHmxBjZOo
| Godot project on GitHub | https://github.com/Alex5041/LD51 |
| Game on itch.io | https://waterstop.itch.io/words-matter |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/words-matter |
Ratings
| Overall | 1177th | 2.704⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1162th | 2.537⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 676th | 3.212⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1143th | 2.704⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1001th | 2.815⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 678th | 2.87⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 731th | 2.558⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1077th | 2.769⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 54🗳️ | 31🗨️ |
Maybe the game should introduce the gameplay easily without instructions.
But overall it's a cool game
Nevertheless, I plan to create a post LD entry with your change ideas and some other ones. Some people noted that bullet as a drop and a flying bullet are undistinguishable.
inresting nonetheless
Regardless, the presentation is pretty good. Visually it has a unique style and music gives this actiony vibe.
Well done!
The biggest thing I didn't understand at first is what the boxes in the bottom did and what the boxes on the top were. The video did help me understand everything in the end tho so good job on making one! Maybe put it more on the top so that people can see it before they try the game to get the hang of how things work.
> Words Matter but why am I holding a gun then?
Yes, that's a solid point. I didn't think about this =\
> Are the tokens words?
That's right, maybe I should've used more consistent naming.
Initially I thought that player will understand the concept from playing, but judging from the comments I was wrong. Next time I'll try to create a more user-friendly game :)
Unfortunately, there are some caveats that prevent the game to accomplish its potential. It quickly gets too hard, and I think it's because of the speed of the bullets, and the fact that they collapse with each other. It's impossible to aim for an enemy from a distance, because it is likely that they will move before the bullet reach them, and their own bullets will shield them. Then more enemies spawn, creating more bullets that block everything, and it stacks up until it becomes unmanageable. The weapon is only effective on close range. But if there are two enemies far from each other, it's almost a game over, because it takes too much time to walk to the other one, enough to have more enemies to spawn, and then there's nothing that can be done.
I did a lot of trials though because as I said, the core mechanic is cool (once you understand it and you pass the tutorial). Most of the time I died before I could get any upgrade, because the plus sign didn't want to spawn. But there was one game where I think I had three bonuses (bullets number, size, speed), and it felt great!
So in the end I think the game-design is great, but need to be tweaked a little to create a satisfying balance. Congrats for making this entry!
But i had fun playing. Well done.