GHST-PRTCL by LoHii

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

GOAL

Can you survive the onslaught of endless horde of ghosts? Eliminate a specific combination of ghosts every 10 seconds to keep playing. You must eliminate the combo ghosts in order, from left to right, without touching or hitting any other ghosts in between. Otherwise, your combo will reset. To eliminate ghosts, swat them with your Cyber Broom, run against them, dive kick on them or vaporize them with your Cyber Blast.

CONTROLS

Movement – WASD
Jump and Double Jump – Space (Hold OK)
Attack with Cyber Broom – Left-click
Cyber Blast – Right-click
Divekick – S (in air)
Wallclimb – Hold A (left wall), Hold D (right wall), Hold Space (ceiling)

TIPS

  1. Try cleaning the arena a bit before eliminating combo ghosts. This makes it easier to navigate the arena.

  2. Use Cyber Blast to clear the way. Eliminating ghosts with these abilities won’t reset your combo. It does have a cooldown though, so be careful!

  3. Use Double Jump, Wall Climb to navigate to hard-to-reach ghosts.

  4. You can collect your combo with Divekick, and it doesn't reset your combo either!

screen1.pngscreen2.png

Ratings

Overall 834th 3.261⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 844th 3.087⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 797th 3.087⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 698th 3.543⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 741th 3.391⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 262th 3.682⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 718th 3.304⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

kankje
04. Oct 2022 · 00:34 UTC
Really fun one! Simple but effective.

I think it would be nice if the difficulty scaled up a bit harder once you get into double digits, but regardless I had a lot of fun with this one. I even almost got the high score at the time of writing this. 😁

I had the game freeze a few times on startup. I'm not quite sure how to reproduce it, but I think it was related to the fact that I hadn't focused the game window when it was starting up. 🤷‍♂️
🎤 LoHii
04. Oct 2022 · 11:06 UTC
@kankje Thanks! Glad to hear you had fun.

Difficulty is an aspect we usually have trouble nailing down. Usually we make our jam games too hard, so this time I think we consciously erred on the other side of the spectrum.

Thanks for the heads up about the freezing. I think it might not actually be freezing, but the name screen is actually an input field that shouldn't be able to be deselected. Not focusing might do the trick. So if it happens for anyone else, try clicking the text with your mouse to see if that does the trick.
Savolae
04. Oct 2022 · 21:37 UTC
Nice and simple, easy to understand yet challenging enough to make you want to play again. Really liked the clean look and smooth, responsive controls.
MsPlanlos
04. Oct 2022 · 22:08 UTC
So easy to pick up on! The graphics are simple but lovely and the leaderboard is a nice thing to have in a game like this! Was kind of difficult not to jump into the wrong ghosts tho! :D
NottaHipster98
04. Oct 2022 · 22:13 UTC
Nice use of colors. Gave the game a vibrant look, but still felt pretty retro.
Cal
04. Oct 2022 · 22:25 UTC
Really fun game, with a good level of challenging. Played a bunch of times and it was easy to get without needing to read tutorial. Great job!
MikroPiru
05. Oct 2022 · 09:20 UTC
Pretty nice. It was really challenging for me, though, most probably because I'm not used to the control scheme. Once I started to do a bit better I got a flush of red ghosts assigned to me and there were only 2 on the screen, so that kind of pulled the rug from under me. :-D

I especially liked the soundscape with the effect in the beginning and the fitting music.

Btw, I tried playing the game once in full-screen mode on an ultra-wide monitor and that hid the combo line from the bottom, making things even more challenging to say the least...
🎤 LoHii
05. Oct 2022 · 16:46 UTC
@mikropiru There is some mercy system in the spawning, but having more than one color in a combo and having more than zero but less than required is definitely the tightest spot. Also, thanks for the heads up about the ultra wide screen! I did do some stuff to support every aspect ratio in an atleast playable way, but the system that helped to show everything on screen for less wide aspect ratios than 16:9 hurted the wider ones. That should be fixed now!
Sohei
06. Oct 2022 · 08:39 UTC
Good challange. Flexibility of actions gives control over the game. I feel satisfaction when I snipe the correct ghost out of the group. Good job!
Shaolin Dave
07. Oct 2022 · 19:09 UTC
My impressions on seeing the screenshots and reading the description (before I noticed there was a web build):
- WASD, spacebar, and mouse: good simple controls. Lots of games here require a wall of text to explain their mechanics, it's better that you kept yours simple.
- Bright characters and obstacles on a flat black background is actually very appealing. It reminds me of classic arcade games.
- ... but it looks like the main character deviates from that? I think the player should also be monochromatic, or maybe with two solid colors, but should at least have a design sytle consistent with the rest of the game

Impressions from playing the game:
- Well, it said "Write your name", and didn't allow me to. I had to restart.
- The left-stick broom attack is a bit weird. It took me a moment to notice that it goes the direction of the mouse. having your attack change direction because you ran past your cursor (which happens a lot in a game requiring you to run quickly around the whole screen) isn't very intuitive.
- Seems the attack isn't even really needed because you can just touch the ghosts? I abandoned it entirely on my third play.
- Never got a chance to use the right-click attack, I'm not even sure it's real.
- The randomly spawning ghosts makes it seem more like luck than skill. Sometimes they spawn in a place that makes it literally impossible to win, A few times I had the wrong ghost spawn directly in my path as I was falling and there was nothing I could do about it.
- A little more player bias would make it fun. I say you should grid-arrange spawn-points on the level, never spawn an ghost close to the player, unless it's the next ghost they need, and increase the chances as the time is lower
- The controls are actually a bit too loose. Immediate acceleration/deceleration (like you see in classic MegaMan) would be much better suited for a game that requires such speedy precision.
- Some of the mechanics seemed accidental, like the wall-climbing. I was also able to ceiling-climb.
YellowKamel
08. Oct 2022 · 11:52 UTC
Neat entry, even though I felt the jump n run controls felt "floaty" if you know what I mean. But nice concept and good incoporation of a leaderboard. Thank you for submitting to my stream! :smirk:
leorid
09. Oct 2022 · 01:51 UTC
Constructive Criticism as requested:

- ghosts you need for the combo should spawn at the beginning to enhance fairness
- maybe there souldn't be a respawn of ghosts mid-trun, because it shrinks player time to about 5 seconds instead of 10 sec
- particle effects when jumping/landing would probably improve game feel

I'm not really into highscore games at all, nor anything competitive but I had quite some fun with it as visuals and "rules of the game" were easy to understand and allowed for a quick entry.
JesusOnWheels
10. Oct 2022 · 20:36 UTC
Simple concept but executed very well. I liked developing a strategy of clearing out the hard to reach ghosts when I had the chance so that I could save the easy ones for a hard combo. The music was very fitting. I ended up mostly using the melee attack and bumping into ghosts. One thing which felt a bit hard to get used to is that the weapon only is active when you first click, so if you click and then move into the enemy with the weapon, it does not count. Had a lot of fun, got to 30 combo :)
fgamer99
10. Oct 2022 · 20:39 UTC
Short little, jet effective game.
Barna
10. Oct 2022 · 20:39 UTC
Nice job on this entry! I think the movement could use a little more work, it's a little weird to maneuver, but the vibe is on point. Keep it up!
LDJam user 267116
11. Oct 2022 · 02:53 UTC
Cool amount of mobility options, and I love the cute ghosts. You can get into a real flow, which is quite an accomplishment of design. Nice work!
asfdfdfd
11. Oct 2022 · 20:05 UTC
It took me some time to get grasp of controls but then it was really fun!
Ryan Dotsikas
12. Oct 2022 · 17:50 UTC
Wow really interesting idea! I love the idea of trying to do things in a very particular order to stay alive and keep the game going. I also have to say, outstanding audio work! I love the SFX when you complete a "level", especially along with the change of color etc, really cool effect. I definitely found it really difficult to control the character though, very sensitive and it was tough to try to get a grasp on it and accomplish the specific task in a short period of time. But overall, really great job I had a lot of fun!
Guildo
12. Oct 2022 · 21:34 UTC
OMG, this is so cute! I love the colors and how the game is kinda "hyperpop"!
Gildar76
13. Oct 2022 · 19:44 UTC
Great game, loved the classic arcade feeling
PostFrog
15. Oct 2022 · 19:22 UTC
Was nice soundwise, and I like the neon visuals direction. However movement didn't feel the best here, which is a shame for game where its the main mechanic in. Nice idea though.
Cedric86
19. Oct 2022 · 20:30 UTC
Whoa that's difficult but really nice concept. Enjoyed playing very much even though i sucked bad. :D
Movement feels good and bgm fits well. Good job. Nice entry.