The Holly Matter by azakhary

[raw]
made by azakhary for LD33 (JAM)
The Holly Matter is a humorous reverse tower defense game where you command swarm of religious fanatics in order to convert a science citadel to your beloved religion!

Check out the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIkPSygybEs

It was made by one software dev, one artwork guy and one music guy. We only managed to put together 6 levels. Passing each requires a good strategy to pass turrets just at the right time.

KNOWN BUG: If someone get stuck on the road (which happens once in 10 times or so) just turn it off and on again. And hate me for a second. But then when anger is gone, it should work fine!

Game is a JAR file meaning it will run on any OS, but it is assumed you have Java installed on your machine, which is usually the case. So it will run by simple double click.

If you do not have java, you can download latest JRE from oracle website. Just google for JRE download for your OS.


Made using libGDX, Overlap2D Editor, Ashley ECS

Ratings

Coolness 44% 1504
Overall(Jam) 3.37 388
Audio(Jam) 3.86 72
Fun(Jam) 2.97 597
Graphics(Jam) 3.83 313
Humor(Jam) 3.50 189
Mood(Jam) 3.48 266
Theme(Jam) 2.79 926

Feedback

highlyinteractive
24. Aug 2015 路 12:50 UTC
Fun to watch, but not much in the way of tactics/gameplay. Nice gfx & sfx though
ajopart
24. Aug 2015 路 12:57 UTC
Am I so bad at this game that I can not pass the second level. Don't see the tactics to use. But great sound and graphics. I like the humor too.
Romaing
24. Aug 2015 路 13:15 UTC
I like the Music, did you guys actually did voices ?^^
A bug on level 2 prevents me to reach next level (a sister is stuck on the road).
馃帳 azakhary
24. Aug 2015 路 13:21 UTC
If someone is stuck on the road, just turn it off and on again, do all things the same, it rarely happens, ever 10 times or so :D sorry about that :D But yeah the voices are done by our awesome Sound/Music/Screaming guy
zepplondon
24. Aug 2015 路 13:22 UTC
Romaing: Thanks. Yeap, It's our voices. :)
undef
24. Aug 2015 路 13:26 UTC
I played it three times, and every time a monk got stuck on the road. Fun idea though!
HolyBlackCat
24. Aug 2015 路 13:26 UTC
Very nice execution and good graphics! But more compex gameplay would be nice. :D

By the way, in the comments to my game you've said that you had some strange bugs. Can you provide more information? When they happen? How?
馃帳 azakhary
24. Aug 2015 路 13:47 UTC
Hi HolyBlackCar, thanks for the feedback! Regarding the bugs, there was this window in a "tower-ish" like structure, I staied near the window, and just died there, then another time there.
HolyBlackCat
24. Aug 2015 路 13:49 UTC
Ok, thanks! I fixed the camrera and collisions (I think). You can try again if you wish!
馃帳 azakhary
24. Aug 2015 路 13:51 UTC
Going to try again in half an hour, trying to fix my bug with freezing monks :D
KrisDevelopment
24. Aug 2015 路 13:59 UTC
It was all about spamming the fanatics. However, nice entry, enjoyed it a lot :)
Zerkruemler
24. Aug 2015 路 14:59 UTC
This is a really good idea: Reverse tower defense. At first it feels weird, but then it is fun to find our how to pass the levels. Unfortunately I didn't find any good tactics except clicking as fast as possible and trying to send all fanatics to the same spot.
Would be interesting to see if there are other tactics as well.
馃帳 azakhary
24. Aug 2015 路 15:04 UTC
I lacked on the level building side. Wasn't able to find a right balance between hard/easy and interesting. I guess needed more trap types, but there was not too much time. I guess it could be made into something cool, but requries more working on it :)
Spyboy
24. Aug 2015 路 17:25 UTC
Hard to predict when the two groups will merge as one :p
馃帳 azakhary
24. Aug 2015 路 18:55 UTC
true that is...
felipeberquo
25. Aug 2015 路 01:23 UTC
Nice idea! It's hard to see this kind of game in jams like this
The graphics are great too! Congratulations!
glerikud
25. Aug 2015 路 02:11 UTC
Funny and good soundtrack, but could be more complex.
darklightteam
25. Aug 2015 路 09:46 UTC
Nice entry! However I'm also stuck on level 2. No matter how I spam the guys they never reach the city.
馃帳 azakhary
25. Aug 2015 路 12:46 UTC
Try to make so, that both branches connect in one simultaniously.
Shina69
25. Aug 2015 路 15:01 UTC
Hallelujah, brothers and sisters! This game rocked! Couldn't stop it until i finished the last level. The characters, the voices, the deadly machines... everything on its proper place. The only negative point: there's not much strategy on it, people may think they need to spawn them in different locations but, on exception to one level, i managed to pass them all with a single concentrated crowd and having the luck to have a fairly amount of fat priests xD
馃帳 azakhary
25. Aug 2015 路 18:07 UTC
Shina69! Thanks so much! we tried hard to make it fun, but yeah I know it lacks on strategy side, whatever I did I couldn't make the level act the way I wanted, it's was harder then it looks :)
QKnight
25. Aug 2015 路 19:41 UTC
Fun game, well made. Would have liked a restart button since you can see pretty quickly when you are going to fail. But fun base concept, pretty hard too.
Headmade
25. Aug 2015 路 20:01 UTC
Ah it super cool to see you in Ludum Dare. I'm really looking forward to take a peek at your source code. I'm sure I can learn a few tricks from the maker of Overlap2d.

On my first try one of the fanatics got stuck in the middle of the path. There was nothing in the way or anything everyone else passed him, but this guy was just jittering to an fro. So I couldn't finish the level.
So I restarted the game and I played to level 3 where the same thing happened. I already reached the goal so the towers were no longer firing. So again I couldn't finish the level because one guy was stuck.

But still I liked the game. It is quite polished and the art style is very nice (I especially like the intro screen). The music is a bit annoying with the "gospel" but it fits the game well. As the others have noted more depth wouldn't have hurt.
Good job overall.
TomOlivier
26. Aug 2015 路 18:50 UTC
Fun game! I tried to play the first level again, but i couldn't :-(
KayZ
27. Aug 2015 路 14:26 UTC
Fun game. Succeeded in taking the citadel in the last level but one of my guys got stuck.. so I didn't really finish :(.

Found your game through your PostMortem on reddit. You should link to it here too, it's an interesting read. I've never heard of Overlap2D but it has some nice features.
guoboism
28. Aug 2015 路 23:25 UTC
Nice game! With the graphics and sound, especially voicing, the game is really fun to play! But the only strategy to spawn all at once?
Drauthius
30. Aug 2015 路 14:19 UTC
Hehe, interesting concept.