Dead Earnest by PoshDan

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

Your name is Earnest and you've just died. Bad luck. But you've been blessed with the skill to harvest body parts and attach them to yourself to prevent deterioration. of course these harvested parts will deteriorate too. You can also use these parts to create your own monstrosities to help in your quest to survive and find the life stone which can bring you back to life. On your way, you can kill humans and 'some monster kind' to harvest parts to help your quest.

Music by Ricky Summer

https://rickysummer.bandcamp.com/

Controls:

WASD - Move

Left mouse button - Attack / move items

Right mouse button - Turn camera

Mouse scrollwheel - Zoom in/out

E - Pick up items

NOTE: The settings may or may not work.

NOTE: The interface is cut off slightly by the Ludum Dare frame. Try scroll inside to play in fullscreen or play on Itch

pic3.png Pic1.png 2023-01-10<em>02-51-50</em>LD52<em>Dead</em>Earnest.jpg pic2.png

Ratings

Overall 252th 3.717⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 271th 3.587⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 286th 3.477⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 259th 3.932⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 543th 3.304⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 199th 3.636⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 179th 3.475⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 299th 3.619⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

Pete Valeo
10. Jan 2023 · 19:08 UTC
Well done! The voxel look/engine really works for what you're going for, and it's impressive how well it runs even in-browser. Feels like a pretty strong Minecraft influence in terms of the look and feel, but doing it in an isometric view makes it feel fresh even though it's something most people are already familiar with. The gameplay itself is a little thin, but what's there is well executed. Not super clear what the end goal is, or to what extent I'm making progress towards it, but it feels good, and is solid for a weekend's worth of effort.

Nice work!
Timur_Bahadir
10. Jan 2023 · 19:11 UTC
The fact that the limb choices actually get visually represented is really cool and the minion maker is a really cool idea and addition.
I'm just a bit confused if ther is a goal/end :thinking: ?
Yngvarr
13. Jan 2023 · 20:46 UTC
I had way too much fun with this game!

First of all: the execution is superb. I didn't notice anything wrong with the game except not being able to rebind inventory to `Tab` (where it ultimately belongs, at least in my mind). You, guys, did a great job.

Gamedesign, though, could be way better. I really wanted to see some consequences of losing a limb or a leg (e. g. dealing less damage when the right hand is lost, or slower movement when legs are busted). Deterioration didn't feel like an issue at all, since it wasn't dealing any noticeable damage. Minions are greatly overpowered and a finite inventory encourages the player to keep making them. That said, it was fun to have a little mob to tear even the most brutal beasts apart. :) Also, as a big fan of immersive simulators, I was happy to see some guards trying to kill beasts. Nice touch!

Here's my playthrough. Didn't think I would be able to win the game, but here I am, at almost 4 a. m., having more fun than I expected. Please, watch until 13:20, you won't regret it!
https://youtu.be/W58YdTlo3Nc
D3kryption
14. Jan 2023 · 07:58 UTC
So many features in such a small time frame.
You all did a fantastic job.
I wasn't a fan of how the text is render on the characters. The 3d text, was a bit odd IMO.
But the game play was smooth.
The minion maker was a cracking idea.
Great work :)
CGreen
14. Jan 2023 · 13:37 UTC
Thank you everyone who has played so far. @yngvarr thanks for your indepth thoughts. The idea of losing a limb impacting you in some way was part of our initial game design but the time constraint prevented it. The body part deterioration sadly wasn't set potent enough due simply to having very little testing time, as the game was a hard grind to make right up to the last hour. Overall, as a team of 3 with only 1 core programmer amoung us (poshdan), we are very pleased with what we accomplished in the time span. You can blame me for some of the control bindings not working.
CodeForJoyCaro
15. Jan 2023 · 16:48 UTC
The music creates a very interesting mood.
Glimmer
15. Jan 2023 · 18:04 UTC
I did finish the game. In the end I just run and pull everything with me. Had some good laughts.
MachWerx
15. Jan 2023 · 18:17 UTC
This is the most fun I've had playing games in LD52 so far! Love the idea of creating minions out of your loot. It could have used a little more direction in getting players to head towards the end goal but I got there eventually. Nice music, cool Minecraft inspired art, and I enjoyed the funny flavor text. Congratulations to the team for this effort!
TheSmellofOxygen
20. Jan 2023 · 19:23 UTC
This was a surprisingly large game! Not too long for a single play session though. Swapping body parts was fun. After I got my first beast arm it was clobberin time and no one could stand against me. The minions complaining all the time was pretty funny and the rain effects and map were pretty nice atmosphere. In the web version at least, the camera was pretty jumpy, especially near the larger towns.
LDJam user 297867
22. Jan 2023 · 08:08 UTC
Had fun creating minion army, though I wish drops could be more balanced, because I was getting a ton of legs and no heads
SwingBill
22. Jan 2023 · 11:53 UTC
Love this game it was really fun!!
Mickxe
22. Jan 2023 · 11:56 UTC
Good job, I really like the way you put together minions with different parts. :D
WobbleBlocks
22. Jan 2023 · 13:10 UTC
That's a fun and cleverly made game! and the music is awesome! Great work! :D
LDJam user 233347
22. Jan 2023 · 18:15 UTC
3 people made this in 72 hours? color me surprised... Very nicely executed.
Very enjoyable to play and naming the minions - though - whilst naming the minion, the movement input is not locked.
LDJam user 250905
25. Jan 2023 · 21:14 UTC
That was really well done, I loved it (:laughing:)! My only real complaint was having no choice over the body parts you harvested from your victims -- there were times where I *wanted* to make a minion, but in the end I only finished one, because during the game I could never find any arms to make another. Really clever though, I loved the variety between monsters and areas, everything feels so expansive, I'm surprised I actually ended up finishing it! As someone stated above, I really think this could've benifited from having consequenses for losing limbs, because as it is, the system works in effectively the same way a hunger bar would; constantly going down until you fill yourself back up (other than damage making it go down faster, it functions essentially the same).

But all and all, great job, keep it up! You three should be proud of yourselves! :beers:
koboldskeep
27. Jan 2023 · 03:43 UTC
Hey, nice demo! Would be fun to see it given more mechanics, or some kind of roguelike setup.
Orpartlu
27. Jan 2023 · 07:22 UTC
Nice entry! I liked the feeling of creating new creatures which help me.
The mood especially the music fits my taste.

I had a bit trouble to get full new creatures because of missing hands. I had 1 arm but 15 heads.

The camera view is a bit uncommon - maybe the angle could be changed, that we could see more of what is in the background.