Grim Harvest by automatonvx

[raw]
made by automatonvx for Ludum Dare 52 (COMPO)

gameplay.png

Grim Harvest

You are a cursed creature, doomed to scavenge around the graveyard feasting on the remains of the recently deceased. The patrol men are wise to your game. Your days are numbered, how many will you last?

Instructions

You have to keep searching for graves to dig up for food ( they are things emitting weird green particles) to keep your hunger meter from falling to zero. Avoid The guards. Occasionally you may find a weapon in a grave, you can use this to kill a guard if you can sneak up on them, but its risky (weapon is one use only).

You have to keep alive till the end of the day to move to the next level/day.

See how many days you can last!!

Controls

WASD or Arrow Keys to Move

E /Left Mouse Click - Dig

Space Bar / Right Click to swing your weapon when you have one

Updates

  • Added Web version: fixed bug that meant Start Button did not appear on Title screen in web. No Other changes Seems to work fine!

Ratings

Overall 89th 3.717⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 92th 3.652⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 148th 3.386⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 47th 4.196⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 108th 3.841⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 27th 4.045⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 41th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 71th 3.761⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

gamebuilder
09. Jan 2023 · 01:34 UTC
Ha! You nailed the theme, albeit darkly. Excellent music and sound — the best thing about this game. It was also challenging, especially after Level 1 — there were some intense moments fleeing from the watchmen.

I was hoping to see a little more variety in the environment (e.g., different grave stones, etc.), but that’s just a suggestion if you decide to develop this game. Overall, it is fun and imaginative. Nice work.
LDJam user 312238
09. Jan 2023 · 05:46 UTC
The chasing people really increase the difficulty of the game.I feel nervous while playing it.In fact,it gives me a
sense of playing games.Thank you for your game.
The music and art are also very good.They make me join the game quickly.
Ja_viera
09. Jan 2023 · 17:54 UTC
Really nice, I enjoyed looking around and find out what kind of organ I dug out. I like the stealth element of the characters with the flashlight, I only wished you could get a weapon sooner
dkdwrek
09. Jan 2023 · 22:24 UTC
Fun game! I like all the descriptions on what you dig up.
Seagoingmanatee
11. Jan 2023 · 00:19 UTC
Enjoyed the game and tackled the theme similarly to me. Also it was very accessible to just hop in and play
JudJudson
11. Jan 2023 · 00:22 UTC
I agree with @dkdwrek , the little descriptions are very endearing. My zombie really liked feet for some reason :cold_sweat:
Glaikunt
11. Jan 2023 · 09:31 UTC
Great little game! Everything fits really well together. Super impressive that you done all this in 48 hours. Really like the art style you went for. I only got to the 3rd level, I couldn't figure out how to use the weapon properly, I think I kept getting caught before being able to use it. Anyway Fun Game, Great Job!
pushmepullyu
11. Jan 2023 · 15:39 UTC
Loved the music and the food descriptions :D
Papaya
11. Jan 2023 · 15:44 UTC
Interesting take on the theme! The core gameplay is solid, and I like the background music that fit the game nicely. I wish the vision cone is more accurate, as I got caught even though it seems I am not in the vision cone :(
exofrenon
11. Jan 2023 · 19:48 UTC
Not bad! I liked the take on the theme and the humorous messages when haversting a grave. The stealth aspect spiced up the gameplay. The graphics were solid, and so were the music and the sound. Also quite polished, with the only exception being how abruptly the day ends and the next begins.

A really commendable effort for a Compo entry.
kikiriki367
12. Jan 2023 · 04:39 UTC
A bit more level variety in mechanics and looks and you have a pretty solid game here! cheers!
chompdev
12. Jan 2023 · 06:18 UTC
Cool idea! I'm actually surprised I didn't see a few more games about graverobbing, but you really nailed the concept here. The character animation is fluid and the digging is tense and fun. The random item descriptions are a neat touch. The stealth is pretty fun, and I like how you can escape even after getting spotted. It also seems like you did a great job of preventing the enemies from boxing you in, so the difficulty always feels challenging but never unfair. Was I just lucky, or does the AI actually avoid closing the player off in a dead end? Great work on your game!
🎤 automatonvx
12. Jan 2023 · 09:26 UTC
Thanks for playing everyone

@glaikunt yeah the hitboxes for using the weapon on the guards are not set up very well, making it pretty tricky to pull off and risky. It was a late feature add that I didn't manage to polish up too much. For a postjam version i'll probably adjust it a little so at least its a reasonable option.

@papaya thanks for the feedback, yeah that vision cone collider probably needs a little adjusting, i'll add it to the postjam list.

@exofrenon thanks for the kind words yeah that transition is pretty abrupt, i'll fix it in postjam :)

@chompdev thanks for the detailed feedback, you give me too much credit the AI is not that sophisticated, they are just pathfinding to you position, its just random luck (and your skillful playing ;) ) if you don't get boxed in.
kythehuman
13. Jan 2023 · 02:17 UTC
My ears really enjoyed the music, especially the title screen. The gameplay and randomly-generated levels were solid! I found some of the text a little small to read but that didn't stop me from munching on grave stuff for 3 nights.
Dev_314
15. Jan 2023 · 01:16 UTC
The art is great! Love the walking animation!
xfinktion
15. Jan 2023 · 05:15 UTC
Nice entry! Music does a nice job of setting the ambiance and art style fits that mood nicely.

Really only criticisms I have is in regards to the weapon. I ran into some things that felt a little odd. The enemies having a kill on collide when not detected was one. Was sneaking up on one and guess I got too close and got killed without the guy turning around. And the other (happened twice) was that I would konk an enemy, they would go to the downed sort of in between state, get up, and kill me. Not sure if they just had more than 1 health on those levels or if it was a bug. If it was a bug, it seemed to happen when the enemy turned around during the swinging animation. I think it might also be nice if the weapon could be used as a "ah crap" button if you get sheparded into a dead end. As far as I could tell, you couldn't use it effectively once you were detected by/facing the enemy.

These minor quibbles aside, nice work! :D
🎤 automatonvx
16. Jan 2023 · 18:16 UTC
@xfinktion thanks for the detailed feedback, yeah the using weapons against enemies feature doesn't work very well, it was a late add. Sounds like it actually has even more bugs than I thought :sweat_smile: I'll probably do a post jam update eventually to try and fix it up a bit. Thanks for playing
cybek
17. Jan 2023 · 00:30 UTC
Frustrating, I almost finished day 1, but I was caught just 3 seconds before end of the day :(
Nice idea of a little labyrinth game with other mechanics, graphics are simple but kinda readable and gives nice feeling to the game. Also the cone of view gave me a feeling like playing the old, commandos game :D
lfreinoso
17. Jan 2023 · 00:39 UTC
Very good and fun game, I loved the theme, I thought the mechanics were cool, simple rules, a complete prototype. The game is frustrating, because when dying we always go back almost to the beginning, but I managed to spend a good time having fun, congratulations!

Check out my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/space-harvest
Richard Vollebregt
17. Jan 2023 · 15:29 UTC
Fun little game! Fit quite well in the theme. Good graphics and well thought out gameplay. Well done :)
AL43868
18. Jan 2023 · 10:54 UTC
An excellent stealth game, music and patrolling enemies give a tense atmosphere
swarrizard
20. Jan 2023 · 18:15 UTC
A fun entry! Loved the pixel graphics and audio. It felt well polished especially for a compo entry. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I had a hard time finding weapons (though it was probably safer for me to just avoid the guards haha).