Pack Goat Hero by runningopenloop

[raw]
made by runningopenloop for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

This was a first attempt to make a game using pico-8. What a great education tool and fun thing to play with.

I worked on this game with my kids who provided ideas, story, methodologies, goals, graphics, and sound. Needed another day or two to add everything we intended.

It is currently playable... but not with the level of depth we had hoped. The kids made all sorts of graphics for bears, bats, pond monsters, wolf kings, evil turkeys, etc.

Complete three summons to win.

To do... - Improve play balance. - Improve encounters. - Making the summons harder/as intended by making you get the things you need. - And adding the enemies to attack you also. - Improved AI for enemies and goats. - Visiting villages/castles. - Add 2nd player to help fight in encounters.

We have low expectations but had a lot of fun.

Ratings

Overall 709th 3.46⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 820th 3.2⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 703th 3.24⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 964th 3.13⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 719th 3.538⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 379th 3.558⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 676th 2.864⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 801th 3.354⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 30🗨️

Feedback

Javid Ladhani
15. Apr 2024 · 18:43 UTC
I really like the 8bit style of the game. Good job!
leorean
16. Apr 2024 · 08:32 UTC
Yay, another pico-8 entry :) Well done!
shaneshanekavanagh
16. Apr 2024 · 10:41 UTC
Nice one. Always liked the look of Pico-8.
zKlau
16. Apr 2024 · 15:34 UTC
Pico-8 brings everyone together :smile: You guys made a nice game.
helviett
16. Apr 2024 · 16:31 UTC
Congrats on submission and keep it up! Graphics is awesome :fire:
AlxJE
17. Apr 2024 · 03:16 UTC
I really love the pixle style and your gameplay, very cool.
semenov
17. Apr 2024 · 18:38 UTC
Takes me back to my childhood!
You and your children did a wonderful job!
jcoates
17. Apr 2024 · 22:11 UTC
Very cute, I love the music! I like all the different mission texts, too. I was a little confused by the combat mechanics at first, but I got it after a bit.
braktheman
21. Apr 2024 · 05:03 UTC
It felt like a real unique and interesting game to me! Congrats on what you did here. I was pretty lost the first few attempts but then I started completing some summons. Loved the audio and the atmosphere.

Great job to the whole family!
tucan
22. Apr 2024 · 00:00 UTC
This is a pretty cool game! It feels nostalgic! I hope you had lots of fun with your kids! Your game makes me really curious about the pico-8! Have a great jam!
LDJam user 243193
22. Apr 2024 · 09:27 UTC
I can see the idea here but it's hard to win in this game if I keep getting attacked by wolves without any chance to recover. I won once because I choose easy tasks but if I had chosen harder tasks, I'm guaranteed to fail.
🎤 runningopenloop
27. Apr 2024 · 09:13 UTC
Thanks for the input @bloodbane , one of the things we need to figure out is how to handle encounters in the world map. (1) random encounters like we have now... but I think there needs to be a time-out to prevent repeat attacks. (2) icon of enemies on world map you can attempt to run away from. (3) safe havens / places to buy replenish.

True, as you play - you get an idea of where you are and were the summons are and can learn to pick the easy ones.

Upon completing a summons, you do get 3x goats. One of each attack goat, normal goat, pack goat.
Ultimately I wanted to pack goats to be the keys to completing many of the quests... you have to pack the medicine/water/food/etc to destination.
CaptainDreamcast
27. Apr 2024 · 10:15 UTC
I protected the king as my third summon and I won the game! A beautiful perfect ending.
I had a couple of runs, I think near the end my optimal strategy was to always go straight to the mission objective and ignore the roads, and try my best to eliminate all wolves before the attack goats die, as long as those goats (greatest of all times) are still around, everything is going well. And it worked out for the most part! I think I only lost one during my winning round.

Very fun game, I like the missions giving a lot of context to the world we are traversing. The fighting is cool too, I liked the way slashing the wolves felt, I think that was designed pretty well, both animation/art-wise and SFX-wise. Your kids did well creating the sounds and graphics! I had a lot of fun playing this game, great job!
BimBim
28. Apr 2024 · 20:52 UTC
pico-8 NICE !!!!!
CursedEmbassy
01. May 2024 · 19:01 UTC
chaos lol