LudumData

King of the Pit by Alkemiste

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

Surive as long as possible on this hellishly small platform. Grab summoning crystals and create an army of your own to fight the incoming waves of enemies.

King of The Pit is definitely not the most original idea :) Take the survivor genre, add a dash of helldivers 2 stratagems and mix a LOT of friendly fire! It was mostly an excuse to spend my week-end animating little pixel art characters...

Aimed for the Compo but didn't manage to finish it in 2 days so I enrolled my team mates from Alkemi to finish it in the jam format. So thanks to: - Anais Lehoux for the Logo, Background and UI design - Viviane Cooper for the additional programming - Morgan Buron and Ghjuvannu-Carlu Sozzi for their design ideas

Voices : Ghjuvannu-Carlu Sozzi & Anais Lehoux SFXs : made with SFXR

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/king-of-the-pit

Ratings

Overall 469th 3.667⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 585th 3.444⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 582th 3.37⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 181th 4.185⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 450th 3.907⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 533th 3.288⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 683th 3.463⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 29🗨️

Feedback

alpacalypse
16. Apr 2024 · 09:35 UTC
Good mechanical twist on the survival genre. I like that there's no resource management for the summoning (besides needing a crystal of the right type), it keeps things nice and focused.
zablas
16. Apr 2024 · 11:25 UTC
Reminds me of the mechanic from Helldivers with LMB and RMB in place of arrow keys. With a style of vampire survivors it makes this a super cool game :D
LDJam user 317477
16. Apr 2024 · 11:30 UTC
I liked the controls of summoning stuff with just left and right mouse.
crylica
16. Apr 2024 · 11:31 UTC
love the graphics and animation, it feels really responsive and it's pretty funny when things get out of hand haha. great job!
LilithOliveras
16. Apr 2024 · 11:36 UTC
A bit difficult for me because I need to watch what I have to click each time on the left, so I end up not dodging the enemies. Despite that, a consistent and solid graphical style, good sound design and, in general, something very solid. My only criticism is that it took me a while to see that to summon I had to use the mouse, I don't know if you say it somewhere but until I saw a comment I didn't know.
DavidTrac
16. Apr 2024 · 11:39 UTC
Liked the survivor mix in here. The game was nice with the summoning controls. Not overwhelming, but if you're slow then you will suffer.
korfi
16. Apr 2024 · 11:40 UTC
![Kingofthepit.png](///raw/04c/c3/z/63961.png)

Tried my best to get past 500, but couldn't! Every time I finished a run I felt like I wanted to play just one more run! The summons were a bit confusing at first but once you got the hang of it I really liked the execution. Would have enjoyed having a tracker for your high score so that you have something to try to beat!
unless games
16. Apr 2024 · 16:28 UTC
Nice game, it was satisfying how the symbols appeared and were voiced.

A full-screen mode with doubled pixel-size or such would be nice! The LD page is showing the game for me with scrollbars and a bit too small.

I'd love to play with arrow keys in place of the mouse buttons because the arrow icons would register faster for my brain.

That said mouse would be even better if you'd let the player summon the creatures where your cursor was at the time of finishing the spells. This could add a bit more tactical depth to the game.

The crystals could have a tiny bit bigger colliders.
Mindnumb Interactive
16. Apr 2024 · 17:26 UTC
This was a cool concept! The animations of all the dudes duking it out were really well done and I especially enjoyed how you implemented the casting like Helldivers. I did have a hard time keeping track of the player when things got intense, something like an arrow or circle at their feet could help to distinguish them more.

Overall a great entry!
Sam Minh
16. Apr 2024 · 18:47 UTC
Fun concept, I can see potential to explore this more and expand on it. Well done!
Rexagon
16. Apr 2024 · 18:49 UTC
I really liked the idea. Very stylish and well finished! Although at first I constantly fell because I was distracted by reading sequences.
Herka
16. Apr 2024 · 18:49 UTC
I think its amazing, art style works well, the abscence of music also fit with the voice acting and the core gameplay is well implemented. Seriously I believe this concept can be pushed further and really be a standalone game, well done !
Dywanix
16. Apr 2024 · 18:51 UTC
Fun game, had some troubles at first with understanding summoning, But once I got the hang of it, I had a really good time. The only thing I miss is the music adding a slight dynamic
Sodoj
16. Apr 2024 · 19:01 UTC
A very nice use of theme! The game is very nicely crafted and it was fun seeing what different creatures I summoned could do. I only wished there was a healthbar indicator because the game suddenly ended without me knowing why (if there was any and I was stupid, let me know ;_;)! Great job!
CaineTinyArms
16. Apr 2024 · 19:05 UTC
Addicting little game, i loved how hectic it would get. Great art too.
eonarheim
16. Apr 2024 · 19:34 UTC
SO good, I love the method of summoning units an additional challenge while dodging. It took me a moment to realize I could fall off the platform haha. I've played this a TON. High praise from me.
Widerhold
16. Apr 2024 · 20:04 UTC
Cute pixel art and animations! Was slightly confused for a moment with the arrows for the summoning and hat to read the controls again but after that i had a blast juggling the collecting, summoning and evading! And obviously i also fell from the platform not realizing why the game has pit in the name :D Great entry!
Gravityflip
16. Apr 2024 · 20:18 UTC
Struggled with the controllers the first time around but quickly got the hang of it! Cool game! Would love some bgm to set the mood
Pe7e
16. Apr 2024 · 20:20 UTC
Fell off the platform while trying to summon in each attempt. But that's on me, good game, nice take on the theme.
JuicyBrucey
17. Apr 2024 · 20:04 UTC
I like the graphics, and I figured out the mechanics in a couple of minutes. I thought the hitbox of the crystals was a little small, which was a bit frustrating given the chaos, and the amount of time i had to spend looking at the combo list as opposed to the play area.
Alessandro2024
18. Apr 2024 · 18:45 UTC
Pretty neat! I think the battlefield could be a little bigger, but it's an interesting concept, having to keep your eyes on so many things at once!
dimesto52
20. Apr 2024 · 12:42 UTC
I find the game interesting but for me the biggest enemy of the game is emptiness
K-toll
01. May 2024 · 18:16 UTC
I like the game mechanics, it's original.

Collecting the crystals requires precision (a little too much), because you really have to go to the exact spot where the crystals are.
But I suppose that's part of the difficulty, as there's no life level, you just have to stay on the platform.

With background music, it would have been great!

Anyway, good job!