A battle for the graveyard by Yamzho

[raw]
made by Yamzho for LD33 (COMPO)
"A battle for the graveyard" is my submission to the Ludum Dare compo category !

It is a one keyboard multi-player 2D kinda battle arena. Players are shape-shifting monsters, swapping from one shape to another to get different special abilities. The gameplay is symmetrical as both players can use the same abilities.

Player 1 plays with :
- WASD to move (or ZQSD for a French keyboard)
- 1234 to change his/her shape
- E to use the ability

Player 2 plays with :
- IJKL to move
- 7890 to change his/her shape
- P to use the ability

The playable shapes/forms are :
- Frankenstein (hand fight, does high damages, lowers received damages, moves slow)
- Skeleton (distant fight, does medium damages, moves fast)
- Slime (can leave goo that deals damage over time on an large area, doesn't take damages from those gooes, moves slow)
- Slender (cannot deal damages, can teleport)

The game starts as soon as the game is launched, players can play as long as they want as there is no timer. They can reset the map and start a new game by pressing X and M together, at the same time ! ;)

Hope you'll enjoy the game ! Leave comments !

---- POST COMPO ------------------------------------------

I published a post compo version with two little changes :
- I added the possibility of pressing ";" instead of "M" when resetting world (for French keyboards)
- The Slender now recover 15% of maximum health when teleporting. A player cannot recover more than half his total health.
- The Skeleton was able to one shot an opponent during close combat. To avoid this, bones inflicts more damages when they hit at a far distance from where they've been thrown.
- The Skeleton throws twice more bones now.

---- AND NOW ? ---------------------------------------------

First, I'd like to thank everyone that left a comment and rated ! That is really appreciated !
I will develop the game during the next week / months to add features (such as LAN and internet multi-player, the use of XBox controllers, more characters and abilities, etc... If you want to follow the development, go on one of the following websites of follow me on Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/yamzho ).
http://gamejams.yamzho.net
http://yamzho.itch.io/a-battle-for-the-graveyard
http://gamejolt.com/games/a-battle-for-the-graveyard/88826
http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-battle-for-the-graveyard

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.33 299
Audio 3.09 296
Fun 3.23 320
Graphics 3.85 143
Humor 2.91 379
Innovation 3.17 363
Mood 3.20 320
Theme 3.66 299

Feedback

DaGuiz
23. Aug 2015 · 23:02 UTC
Good game :)
APC
24. Aug 2015 · 03:04 UTC
I'm just one person so I couldn't really test it but I checked out all the mechanics and they seem interesting. I bet if 2 people had a competitve fight they could pull off some neat tricks with those mechanics.
DarkCart
24. Aug 2015 · 11:47 UTC
Give yourself a high five for using Java :) It's a good game.
AdenMansonGames
24. Aug 2015 · 11:48 UTC
Very cool multiplayer game :D
sapermysz
24. Aug 2015 · 11:52 UTC
Nice game , but IJKL is not good choice to move i think that good input for second player was be srrow keys and numeric pad

sorry ffor my bad english
LastLeaf
24. Aug 2015 · 11:53 UTC
I tried to play with my left hand and my right hand so I cannot say it is fun or not.
But the graphics are nice.
kirilllosev
24. Aug 2015 · 12:07 UTC
Lovely sprites :)
DaGuiz
24. Aug 2015 · 12:29 UTC
Par contre il y a un petit fail, le reset du 2eme joueurs est le "m" d'un clavier AZERTY, sur un clavier QWERTY il faut faire ";"
DaGuiz
24. Aug 2015 · 13:29 UTC
This game is good, but simple to the gamepad : https://i.gyazo.com/3b88dfe3d24dde504866e438fddf9ea4.png
TiByte
24. Aug 2015 · 16:40 UTC
Works on Linux. Good multiplayer Game.
Music broke if there is any.
OS: Ubuntu 14.04 x64
JRE: 1.7
Somnium
24. Aug 2015 · 16:55 UTC
Pretty neat game :-) It is fun to play in multiplayer, although the keypad panel might have been better for player 2.
Jod
24. Aug 2015 · 18:10 UTC
I am incredibly impressed by your clear art direction and ability to make a two-player game.

The ability to switch between mosters is awesome. Slime is OP. :D
gene-z
24. Aug 2015 · 18:29 UTC
Great game, Nice concept
Zerkruemler
24. Aug 2015 · 19:36 UTC
Looks good. I cannot rate it since I have no second player.
Zammalad
24. Aug 2015 · 19:40 UTC
Liked this entry very much. Always difficult for multiplayer games to get good testing but the mechanics seem cool. Good effort.
razavidn
24. Aug 2015 · 19:46 UTC
Sadly just one person here, but LOVE the art!
hgcummings
24. Aug 2015 · 19:47 UTC
Really nice graphics and overall consistency/mood. The gameplay is very simple, but I really like these multiplayer on single machine games, and the various special abilities of the monsters was a nice touch.
DaanVanYperen
24. Aug 2015 · 20:02 UTC
Not the game I expected from screenshots. Figured it was a some form of board game! Delicious art.
t4u
24. Aug 2015 · 20:10 UTC
Graphics are nice. I see some idea to make innovation with different characters. Music is terribly annoying. I don't feel fun from playing it. Even if I played together with someone I still doubt if it would give me fun.
hbirler
24. Aug 2015 · 20:16 UTC
Really enjoyed playing this with my brother. Best game of LD33 so far. Great art and gameplay
peterkirk
24. Aug 2015 · 21:12 UTC
It took a bit to understand what to do but once I worked it out I had fun.
HACKhalo2
24. Aug 2015 · 23:23 UTC
This was fun to play, especially against myself and my wife. But I agree that the arrow keys would of been a better selection for player 2
Afenda
25. Aug 2015 · 07:59 UTC
GG Yamzho ! super nice multiplayer system keyboard and I love gaphismes and audio effects.
baykush_figtree
25. Aug 2015 · 22:13 UTC
So cool! Love the voices. hehe
Hegback
26. Aug 2015 · 10:46 UTC
Ah...school days...sure wish my ex-classmates will play this with me too
lanestp
26. Aug 2015 · 11:49 UTC
Fun little multiplayer game. Has a nice amount of variety thanks to the shape shifting!
crucknuk
26. Aug 2015 · 11:54 UTC
Really nice compo! Hope you will add one or two more monster to add variation of the gameplay for a next release ;)
Mike Mezhenin
26. Aug 2015 · 16:26 UTC
Skeleton, fight!

(BTW, Slender feels unbalanced - maybe if each teleportation gave you some health or other bonus the character would be more useful).
guoboism
27. Aug 2015 · 11:07 UTC
Art is great! Nice multiplayer game! Vampire can not attack? Only moves?
Jupiter_Hadley
31. Aug 2015 · 19:34 UTC
Love the graphics, great game. I included it in part 13 of my Ludum Dare 33 Compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/1VzFVc1MuWc
Druid
03. Sep 2015 · 22:31 UTC
Well... I don't have secont player. But gameplay looks incredibly fun, so i give 5 for that :D

Art and audio deserves 5 too, because game looks and soud good!

All in all, one of best entries!
inbetweengames
05. Sep 2015 · 11:07 UTC
Pretty fun game, nice aesthetic. And hooray for procedural levels!
LandoSystems
08. Sep 2015 · 00:15 UTC
Very solid graphical style, good multiplayer gameplay, great job overall!
LukeZaz
08. Sep 2015 · 03:27 UTC
Skeleton was extremely overpowered, and was actually more effective at melee than ranged combat. Don't know what Slender was supposed to be for. Decent game, I'm sure I would've enjoyed it more with two players, but it is even okay playing against yourself.
Xanjos
09. Sep 2015 · 17:36 UTC
Awkward testing this on my own (kinda wish there was an AI opponent)but I like how each monster's unique ability fits certain playstyles (e.g. Skeleton and Slime for people who like to zone and Frankenstein and Slender for those who like to get in close) plus the game actually looks well balanced (good thing abilities have a cooldown period otherwise Skeleton would be too OP :P)
mzmiric5
14. Sep 2015 · 00:10 UTC
Interesting game, I like the multiplayer aspect, and I'm sure it's really fun with friends. I tried both the submitted and post compo version. The controls are a bit awkward. I do like that different characters have different abilities with cooldowns, nice execution of the theme
General
14. Sep 2015 · 08:22 UTC
Good game for 2 players! I tried to play for both players, here's what I've got:https://youtu.be/BtVCl5-xRYo

Your game is at 9:54
BoaHeck_ArtGent
14. Sep 2015 · 20:57 UTC
Interesting take on the theme well done. I jus wish I had someone to test with also maybe a slight colour difference between the two sides enemies could go a long way towards readability in a 2 player situation.