LudumData

Bow Knight Drifter by Kostas Nik

[raw]
made by Kostas Nik for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

Play as a knight that drifts through this strange island. Pick up flowers to craft arrows, hunt animals for their skins and claws to unlock new bows. When you are ready kill the Elder Dragon!

Controls
Move: WASD
Melee Attack: Left Mouse Button
Bow Attack: Right Mouse Button
Weapon Wheel: Tab (hold)
Dash: Space
Sprint: Shift
Pickup Flowers: E
Heal: Z

Craft arrows/potions with Left Mouse Button when Weapon wheel is open
Leave weapon wheel when weapon is select it to equip bow skill

For the harvesting theme we decided to go with the simple flower gathering and killing animals through hunting aspect as per this dictionary definition.

harvest:
"to pick and collect crops, or to collect plants, animals, or fish to eat"

1.1 version patch notes
Enemies and flowers now have a longer respawn period.
Fixed a bug with an enemy sprite appearing to end of the boss fight

Ldjam page remains with the original submission.
Itch.io embedded page has the v1.1 of the game

Unity Projects Screenshot 2023.01.09 - 18.56.20.64.png
Unity Projects Screenshot 2023.01.09 - 18.57.53.51.png

HTML https://doctorhouse13.itch.io/bow-knight-drifter-ludum-dare-52
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/bow-knight-drifter

Ratings

Overall 195th 3.814⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Fun 146th 3.843⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 652th 2.843⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Theme 741th 2.9⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 176th 4.125⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Audio 211th 3.614⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Mood 330th 3.569⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 50🗨️

Feedback

Bowen
09. Jan 2023 · 18:45 UTC
Nice Game! I like its art! I will try to beat boss!!!!
FrogtownMatt
09. Jan 2023 · 18:56 UTC
I am a sucker for some looting and crafting, that was great! I really enjoyed the audio and art, it felt a lot like an old school ARPG like Legend of Mana or something. The art of the Mantis enemy reminded me a lot of Risk of Rain 1's art style, really love it. I was able to skip right to the advanced bow, I think I'd have more fun if there was some sort of clearer progression but I'm not sure how you'd get that without a lot of work.

Really glad I played, that was a lot of fun!
kodingnights
09. Jan 2023 · 19:24 UTC
Amazing art! Good gameplay! Solid game.
Korvack
09. Jan 2023 · 22:22 UTC
Really nice and fun game, a little too difficult because of the enemies' too fast respawn!
It's beautifull and the mechanics work very well! Nice work =)
🎤 Kostas Nik
10. Jan 2023 · 05:09 UTC
@frogtownmatt glad you liked it! a better crafting system would be good but there was no time. Thanks for playing!

@korvack yeah probably a longer respawn time and just a bit easier would be better. Thanks for the feedback!

@kodingnights @bowen thanks for playing and the feedback!
Ravernt
10. Jan 2023 · 19:22 UTC
Fun souls-like game. Even though it is sometimes a tiny bit clunky and quite difficult I still really enjoyed my time with it. Good job!
Nick Saulnier
10. Jan 2023 · 20:37 UTC
Art here is AWESOME. Love the sprite-work. Audio is good and fitting as well, and the gameplay seems well-considered!

My main critique is difficulty. When exploring I stumbled into the boss room without making any purchases; the fight was really easy in my opinion. SO, the disparity between overworld and boss difficulty is pretty large, I found the Snakes and Mantis swarms more challenging than the Dragon.
LDJam user 315038
10. Jan 2023 · 20:39 UTC
Beautiful game, good work on the art and sounds! It's cool that the enemies really challenge you and it's not that easy to get the enemy with your arrows. Also I found myself losing over and over because enemies suddenly spawned behind my back while I was crafting arrows (I would love if crafting arrows didn't require you to enter the menu and hold your mouse button). And I love the inspiration with Hyperlight Drifter <3
🎤 Kostas Nik
10. Jan 2023 · 20:44 UTC
@nick-saulnier @wolkp thanks for the feedback, Glad you liked the artwork. Thats true, i shoulda made the respawn timer longer or not respawning at all, and the enemies overall easier. There was not enough time to think properly, hehe
LDJam user 315038
10. Jan 2023 · 20:49 UTC
@kostas-nik Actually I really liked the movements of the melee guy - it's fun to see someone make an effort and not just make enemies walk in a straight line towards you. Especially in a game featuring arrows! :D And regarding spawns, I guess you could make enemies spawn in a "safer" distance from the player
HayriCakir
10. Jan 2023 · 20:57 UTC
Amazing art, music and fun gameplay. It is a bit too hard for me since I'm not very well at souls-like games but still I had lots of fun while I'm chasing chickens :D
🎤 Kostas Nik
10. Jan 2023 · 21:07 UTC
@hayricakir Glad you played and enjoyed your time, the whole "you died" thing might be frustrating, but you don't really lose anything. The goal is to have fun :)
Pete Valeo
10. Jan 2023 · 22:29 UTC
Nice work! The art and sound/music were spot on for the feel/genre, and the gameplay mechanics were intuitive and actually fun to use. The walking/swinging felt a little clunky, but it's understandable given the constraints of the LD jam format. It's a solid submission overall, but for being a 2-person team, it's extremely impressive output for a single weekend project. Little things to simplify the experience, like, having the merchant's list appear automatically whenever you approach, are nice user-experience touches that really make things feel smooth. Job well done.
Shay Kopf
10. Jan 2023 · 22:31 UTC
Very Nice game.
Loved the art style, and the gameplay is polished.
The challenge is always great, I would love to have a bit more narrative in the game, but overall great game!
NoelOskar
10. Jan 2023 · 22:34 UTC
Really cool game, i love the artstyle, and the idea, but i find the difficulty curve too step, it's very hard from the very start, i'd say a more linear approach with these mechanics (you walk through the level, collect stuff, and enemies & items DON'T spawn on the ground near you), that would be way more fun to play, cuz rn i just can't move any further cuz i constantly get enemies spawning, it makes things like crafting especially hard, the enemy spawning makes it so there's no breathing room for that. The combat is pretty nice, i like the addition of the dash
zSharpFire
10. Jan 2023 · 22:35 UTC
The game overall is well made and very fun, but the progressing is a bit awkard: enemies were challenging but i honestly thought the dragon was just a first boss and not the final one since i was able to defeat it by simply standing in a corner and spamming with my sword. All things considered, it's a great game
Alex de la Cour
10. Jan 2023 · 22:43 UTC
Really loved the art, really loved the music, and the upgrade and crafting system was a great touch - an impressive, cool features for a game jam game! My only criticism is combat was tough - I think having an anticipation frame for a player character can really make melee combat feel laggy despite looking cool. I think it feels much more snappy and responsive if the attack happens straight away and makes combat smoother and more enjoyable. But other than that - good job, I had fun playing!
DeathBySnail
10. Jan 2023 · 22:49 UTC
beautiful looking game, feels and plays good! I would say it's more foraging than harvesting but very enjoyable. Cool monsters especially the boss!
exofrenon
10. Jan 2023 · 23:31 UTC
Μπράβο μάγκες, φοβερή δουλειά! :wink:

As everyone noted, the visuals are fantastic. I loved the pixel art, especially those trees. The combat feels great, the character controls are respnosive and the attacks are weighty. The use of the mouse was a little bit unnecessary in my opition, you could just use two keyboard keys for sword attacks and shooting, applied on the direction that the player facing (see Hammerwatch). Also, I never had to use the dash. The boss fight was also a proper boss fight, the attacks were nicely designed. Overall, really polished, with the crafting system included I see that a lot of work was put into it, even though it ends abruptly, but understanble given the time constraints.

Only the theme implementation felt a little bit tacked on, since this is essentially just a roguelike and "Harvesting" just went next to it.
JustinMullin
10. Jan 2023 · 23:39 UTC
Awesome work. The art and animations are wonderful, and really work well. I love the palette you chose, and the combat is quite fun. I was a bit disappointed that the strategy that worked best for me against the final boss was swordplay, given the game puts a lot of emphasis on the bow, but the sword animation was very satisfying so it wasn't too much of a loss. I really like the design of the mantis, and it was neat to have a basic crafting system to incentivize fighting the enemies. Overall, great piece, I enjoyed it quite a lot. Well done!
TooSalty0000
11. Jan 2023 · 07:17 UTC
It was really fun. I really liked it, and I think I played more than I should've lol.
I love the fighting mechanisms, and it feels great slashing and shooting enemies.

Frankly, I'm not sure if it fits the theme very well. I get where the "harvest" is, but it's not exactly the main theme of the game. Despite it, it's a very well made game, and if you tweak it more with stories and UI, I think it can be a very popular game.
Found Bow Tonight
11. Jan 2023 · 08:14 UTC
Thanks for your game.It reminds me of my childhood,playing RPG games just like this.Few SinglePlayer games like this now.I forget my vexation and enjoy myself.Thanks!!!!!!
LDJam user 312238
11. Jan 2023 · 09:06 UTC
It is really a game,which wasn't made in such a short time.I like the game very much.This RPG game brings me back.The snake ane the insect are strong but I tried to get the weapons and I did it.After making all of the arrows,I challenged the dragon and beat it.The art,the assets,the music,the animations......Everything works well except ysort.Overall a nice game,I love it very much!!!!!!!
🎤 Kostas Nik
11. Jan 2023 · 10:36 UTC
@poietic-ruby thanks a lot for the feedback.Glad you enjoyed your time. I have a huge coding base about top down games and just exploring new ideas in each ludum dare. I know about the ysort problem but it needs a lot of micromanaging and it saved me a lot of time by not doing it correctly
LDJam user 312238
11. Jan 2023 · 11:32 UTC
@kostas-nik That’s right.I know Unity Ysort takes a lot of time.
youjing
11. Jan 2023 · 12:51 UTC
Cool game with very good graphics (but there is some visual lag)! I can't find "harvest" in this game, but I think game jams are also opportunities to test different ideas. Also, it's a little bit hard for me to read the text and control.
bigwhiteshogun
12. Jan 2023 · 03:13 UTC
What a fun experience this was. I loved the graphics, the art style reminded me a lot about the Titan Souls game. Advance Bow is busted, it took me three tries to smite the beast! Super cool entry.



Also who't this dude?
![eda465c018ddb76f303b62623dd075d7.png](///raw/b60/42/z/5635b.png)
🎤 Kostas Nik
12. Jan 2023 · 07:28 UTC
@bigwhiteshogun Thanks for playing! its a bug, this dude shouldnt be there, but he looks like he could become a boss
bigwhiteshogun
12. Jan 2023 · 08:17 UTC
@kostas-nik yeah I almost heard the Dark Souls boss music in my head when this sprite show up. I was like oh no... second phase is coming :P This dude scared the c*ap out of me :P
🎤 Kostas Nik
13. Jan 2023 · 18:20 UTC
@alex-de-la-cour thanks for the feedback and for playing! You may be right about melee timers but im kinda used to a bit slower melee attacks. I also didn't want melee to be a lot better than the bow which i didn't exactly nailed but that was the thought
chompdev
13. Jan 2023 · 21:19 UTC
Very impressive combat, art, and overall design! The melee combat feels solid and even has screen shake and quality animations. The collecting/crafting/exploration loop is enjoyable. All the enemies are fun to fight, and the boss is extremely well done for a short jam. Even the player death animation is really detailed and smooth for such a short timeframe (I guess you knew I'd be dying a lot! :)
Almax
14. Jan 2023 · 01:09 UTC
Gameplay implementation was very polished. Great camera, and combat feedback. Cute pixel art, although music got a little repetitive but I'm really impressed you managed to get a boss fight in within the scope of a game jam! Overall a really solid entry, great work!
🎤 Kostas Nik
14. Jan 2023 · 01:22 UTC
@almax thank you! its basically one image with some saturation shifts
keip
14. Jan 2023 · 03:14 UTC
In the beginning I liked the sounds and the music, but after a while I had to turn off the sound because it was too monotonous. Is unfortunately not different with us. Suitable good sounds in the short time is difficult to make. The game principle and also the graphics I find successful. Good work
kikiriki367
14. Jan 2023 · 04:33 UTC
It is a great game! And i passed it first try by doing the old witcher/skyrim technique! By shooting everything ive got, telling the dragon to relax a second while i open up my crafting menu and craft everything to full and the smack him again! xD No bugs, great polish, great gameplay, great sound... Oh and this might be a strange compliment but great job on the volume level for all sounds!!! 90% jam games end up with sound effects that are 10 time louder than the music making it impossible to listen to, but you did it perfectly and i cant be more happy about it!!! So good job on everything! :D.
21st Century
14. Jan 2023 · 05:19 UTC
First of all, I would like to compliment the team who completed this quality game in a short time. The gameplay itself was quite interesting. However, it was regrettable that the "harvest" was not felt essential because the difficulty of the boss was easy and it could be cleared with only three potions and a sword. In addition, in a battle with a non-boss monster, when it is within the attack range, it avoids the attack because it does not knock back or faint when hitting, but rather avoids the attack by hitting and rolling like a boss monster, which can cause some fatigue. Still, considering that these shortcomings were made in three days, I think they can be improved enough.
I enjoyed playing the game. Thank you for making a fun game!
SmelJey
14. Jan 2023 · 06:43 UTC
This game has crazy amount of content for a game jam entry. I really enjoyed playing it! Theme is a bit off, but gameplay and arts are brilliant. Great job!