LudumData

Reaper by aevek

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

Use the cover of the harvest festival of Samhain to quickly gather some souls that seem to have sprouted from the ground. Use your scythe to free the souls from their ghostly form, then pick them up. You can't move on until you've harvested all souls from an area.

5.png

Controls

  • WD/Arrow Keys/Gamepad Left Stick to move
  • Space/W/Up/Gamepad A to jump
  • Q/E/Gamepad X/Gamepad B to reap

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Tools used

  • Bevy Engine (using Rapier physics and Bevy ECS LDtk plugins)
  • LDtk
  • Aseprite
  • Audacity
  • jsfxr
  • BeepBox

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Credits

While I made this game on my own, I couldn't have done it without the help of @ZhennaPerks for their constant great feedback and suggestions when things weren't working right (and also keeping me fed while I jam). I also had excellent playtesting help from @DrSnowDude and @Rhoka along the way to help me find some nasty bugs and get the gameplay feel right.

This was my first ever LD not using Unity and it was definitely challenging, but Bevy is quickly turning into an awesome engine and made a lot of this very simple. Some things are difficult for my unity-trained brain to wrap my head around (like state transitions which is why there is no menu sorry).

Link https://aevek.itch.io/reaper
Link https://aevek.itch.io/reaper
Link https://aevek.itch.io/reaper
Link https://github.com/jakemcleman/LD52/releases/tag/0.4.3
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/reaper

Ratings

Overall 136th 3.543⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 88th 3.674⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 287th 2.792⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 67th 4.104⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 75th 4.021⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 177th 3.13⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 194th 2.548⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 149th 3.37⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

SupremeKurt
08. Jan 2023 · 21:30 UTC
The controls are very snappy and direct, which feels nice. It sometimes happened that souls got stuck out of reach so I had to wait for them to fly down, which was a bit of a bummer, but other than that it was a nice platformer.
MostLikely
08. Jan 2023 · 22:55 UTC
very impressive and clean for 48 hours

the jump sound got a little annoying, if you had a few variations it would make it nicer I bet

also I think a speedrun timer would be good for this game :)
RisingMoon
09. Jan 2023 · 06:20 UTC
Very clean visual, I like this style.
It's just that the height of jumping against the wall is a bit strange
JeffSobel
09. Jan 2023 · 08:02 UTC
The game has a really nice atmosphere and graphics that fit very well. Very nice style. The jump mechanic is very fun and well realized, doesn't feel "too floaty" or anything. There are some rough spots where the player doesn't respond as one might expect, like when jumping just after falling off of a platform or walking off of certain ledges.

Some background music could have been fun as well, but overall a very well realized vision! :)
pushmepullyu
09. Jan 2023 · 08:04 UTC
I love the jumping and the different camera zooms on some levels :D
dkdwrek
09. Jan 2023 · 20:42 UTC
Well done! I think the animations are really nice. Just wish the attack was on mouse or something else on the other side of the keyboard so I could keep my movements precise when attacking.
Knatterton
09. Jan 2023 · 21:56 UTC
Very nice, and I love the little details you put into this one. Cutting the grass, adding force to the flame once you killed the ghost, etc. The art style is lovely and so is the sound. Impressive!
Hell Homa
10. Jan 2023 · 03:12 UTC
Very cool, good gameplay and stylish graphics (I very like this white-gray pixel style), but for some reason the movement to the right and left is sometimes interrupted (windows version). Although, maybe it's because of my crooked hands xd
CuteSquirrel
10. Jan 2023 · 05:41 UTC
Awesome game! Good feel on jumping around (although I would stop picking up souls interfering with your jump, that's a little annoying), satisfying sounds, but most of all really nice atmosphere in the simple art. Old school and cool.
The levels where good. The later actually a bit hard, which where good. Lot of difference in them, and I loved the zooming on and out. The pixel art worked really well at the different zoom levels.
Really good entry!
Aurailus
10. Jan 2023 · 06:16 UTC
Gorgeous low-bit graphics. I really like the tileset, and the little bits of wheat that you can cut with your scythe add to the atmosphere in an appealingly abstract way. The player controls a little bit funny, occasionally losing velocity in mid air, but it's very fun to play regardless! I agree with the above commenter that it can be a bit frustrating when the soul flies out of reach, and I was slightly confused initially that I had to jump into the soul instead of hitting it with the scythe. I really enjoyed playing your game on stream!
Lila Pause
10. Jan 2023 · 15:20 UTC
Cool game with pretty satisfying platformer physics. I do wish the souls didn't have a hitbox though. Sometimes they eat your jump and other times they give you a double jump.
paci
11. Jan 2023 · 07:53 UTC
Really cool to play, surprisingly dynamic! I'm impressed you got this result trying out a new engine (i wish I had the courage to move from unity)!
Langotriel
11. Jan 2023 · 20:34 UTC
Damn. For a compo this is quite a lot of game and it's got pretty tight movement, too! Congratulations on an impressive entry! Also congratulations to your testers for helping out with polish :D
Zuwu
11. Jan 2023 · 23:40 UTC
Really fun, great controls and well designed levels!
LDJam user 280036
12. Jan 2023 · 03:28 UTC
I liked this one. The controls are smooth, the pixel art is nice, satisfying sounds. I was impressed by the number of levels. I played through the whole thing. Nice entry.
Hawkin
12. Jan 2023 · 23:08 UTC
This was satisfying and fun to play! It was simple, but the platforming felt good and the hunting was challenging enough. I do think having Q/E as attack was a bit difficult, as they aren't easy to press while I'm also moving with A/D. This may have been a better time to use Arrow Keys + ZXC.

The wheat added a neat dynamic to an otherwhise drab level, but I wonder if you originally intended for it to have another purpose. I love the inclusion of lore rather than something generic! That always makes a game immediately more endearing, in my opinion.

![Screenshot 2023-01-12 171350.png](///raw/319/53/z/564f7.png)
benskca
21. Jan 2023 · 15:19 UTC
This was really fun and feels super complete, if you hadn't put "I ran out of time" at the end I wouldn't have thought you had :smile:

The platforming feels good, the jumping has a good sense of momentum to it without feeling too unresponsive which can happen pretty easily when you let the player hold the button for higher jumps like you've done here. If you want to keep working on this post-jam I think with just some music and a bit more graphical variety this would already start looking super polished :grin:
Ismael Rodriguez
21. Jan 2023 · 21:33 UTC
Great entry. The gravity feels kind of wonky sometimes, but it mostly works. I like the visual style, and especially like the wheat mechanics.
Flightless
25. Jan 2023 · 14:48 UTC
Super clean, well done! I really liked the addition of the wheat patches - it added a lot to the overall feel.