Chicken Slayground by Zettelkasten

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

Once upon a time you were an innocent, happy chicken... but not anymore!

After stumbling on a mysterious sign in the nearby forest, all you crave is violence.

Shred enemy waves with your trusty shotgun

Draw runes to summon infernal help

Collect coins to get upgrades (so shiny!)

Shoot, summon and wreak mayhem!

Post Jam Version

Disclaimer: The version playable on this page is a post-jam version!

To stay fair, the original jam-version of our game can still be found here.

Here is whats new in our glorious post-jam version:

  • We actually have a UI now
  • New Start, Win and Loose Menu
  • Visuals (post-processing, wiggly grass, enemy sprites tear when damaged, runes emit stuff)
  • Hopefully less lag (mesh cutting for the cardboard-destruction effect is no longer performed every time an enemy dies)
  • Some balancing tweaks
  • Bug fixes

Screenshot (31).png

Controls

Movement: WASD

Shoot: Left click

Runes

Run along the rune path to activate effect. Once you started drawing in one corner, you need to continue drawing along the lines you already drew!

Triangle rune: Summon exploding egg

Square-ish rune: Temporarily switch shotgun to rocket launcher

Pentagram rune: Summon armed minnions

Ratings

Overall 143th 4.039⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 95th 4.079⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 371th 3.592⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 351th 3.961⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 106th 4.421⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Audio 225th 3.792⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Humor 68th 4.135⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 279th 3.903⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 66🗳️ 61🗨️

Feedback

crushedsummers
16. Apr 2024 · 08:22 UTC
This is quite a funny game :joy: an interesting twist from the theme Summoning!
I really like the direction taken for the graphics, and although it was sometimes hard to draw the pentagrams on the floor, being able to draw pentagrams is already impressive. Good job!
LDJam user 0
16. Apr 2024 · 08:29 UTC
tnx this is really awesome! nice job
Kronox
16. Apr 2024 · 08:32 UTC
Nice little game, enjoyed the run. Only thing I noticed was that it was sometimes hard to see what part of a pemtagram already was drawen, so a bit more contrast there could help
HsG_Gringo
16. Apr 2024 · 10:00 UTC
chicken blood is so good for rituals!:) nice paper-style arts and fun gameplay. hmm... i survive lvl 10 but game said that i lost :(
Esther128
16. Apr 2024 · 12:14 UTC
I love the paper-styled graphics!
konstantinreed
16. Apr 2024 · 13:58 UTC
Love the paper graphics. Great job! It would be nice to have clearer indication of where to start creating the rune.
Baluj
16. Apr 2024 · 22:30 UTC
I may not have correctly understood the objective of the game because after passing the final round, it resulted in me having lost the game. For everything else, I love the game.
maxflav
17. Apr 2024 · 02:52 UTC
So cute!
rensun
17. Apr 2024 · 18:11 UTC
this chicken with AK just killed me xD, cool game
🎤 Zettelkasten
18. Apr 2024 · 18:39 UTC
Thanks for trying our game and your feedback!

@hsg-gringo @baluj unfortunately there was a bug in our game and it showed the wrong screen when you actually won ... you did nothing wrong! Congratulations on finishing the game!
Capreola
18. Apr 2024 · 20:51 UTC
The game is hilarious! Loved the cardboard aesthetics, really nice touch. It was sometimes hard to draw pentagrams because of bushes and mountains, but overall it was so fun.
Castitatis
19. Apr 2024 · 05:30 UTC
Wow, impressive entry, I love the artstyle, so original and cute. I love how it really feels like you are shooting cardboards XD
LDJam user 320677
19. Apr 2024 · 16:40 UTC
One of the best I played! I don't understand how this can have only a few ratings. Great unique graphics, great gameplay, thanks for this. It is a shame, that the mouse cursor is not somehow changed, it gets lost quite often in the scene, some kind of crosshair would be great. And sometimes the bombing is lagging the game. But that doesn't change the fact, that the game is brilliant! :heart:
Flying Butter Studio
20. Apr 2024 · 20:23 UTC
I'm now the chicken king! :smile:
I love the art style and the mood of the game.
The mecanic of invocation combined to a vampire like game is innovating.

Nice work, congrats! :smile:
Gordy Keene
21. Apr 2024 · 16:20 UTC
Loves the graphics!
ekkiiiii
21. Apr 2024 · 16:26 UTC
Very cool cardboard art style! I had fun exploring the flocking mechanics for a while but it got too repetitive to play it through. A fun game and a nice jam entry!
Shrillwhip
21. Apr 2024 · 16:43 UTC
Love the graphics style (just wish the UI was as nice as the rest of the graphics)
OGma_badparenting101
21. Apr 2024 · 21:04 UTC
The cardboard cutouts were super! such cute graphics. And i LOVED the pow-pow! good job.
Coda Highland
22. Apr 2024 · 01:04 UTC
I'm a sucker for the scribbly hand-drawn papercraft style -- one of my past jam games used that style, with my wife doing the illustrations, and I think it's probably my best jam game ever. And the premise is hilarious! Well done.
Anton Florey
22. Apr 2024 · 02:18 UTC
@coda-highland Thanks for your feedback! Just tried out your paper-style game, its quite fun :D
PieRo_PBeS_studio
22. Apr 2024 · 06:13 UTC
graphically it's so good, the fact of having drawn everything by hand gives an inimitable tone. The intro is perfect for that. The interpretation of the theme is cool and the whole thing is pretty well done. I think it's a shame to shoot sheep...poor little guys.
Hadik
22. Apr 2024 · 11:20 UTC
Creative and entertaining, this game combines enjoyable paper-styled graphics with solid gameplay. Improving clarity in visuals and mechanics could boost the overall experience.
BathPirate
22. Apr 2024 · 11:32 UTC
THAT'S GREAT!!!
iOlis_Lui
22. Apr 2024 · 12:09 UTC
(A scream of admiration) I'm so amazed!

Chiken! Chicken is ridiculous!!!

But I feel like such a cool chicken when I run around the field and complete the pentagrams one by one with a wave of my paw! And there are explosions everywhere! Explosions! Explosions!
Sam Minh
22. Apr 2024 · 12:10 UTC
Great entry, very funny and easy to get into. The artsyle is very cute and striking. The gameplay is simple but it works. I like the minigame of having to juggle two different things at once, in this case: a twin stick shooter where you kite enemies, but you want to draw the runes on the ground with your movement. It would probably have been more interesting if the runes were more necessary for the game, where they unlock progress to ending the levels for example.
vidarn
22. Apr 2024 · 17:50 UTC
The art direction is awesome, I love how cute everything is! Great characters.
The controls are responsive and tight, and it was fun playing a shooter while trying to draw runes with your movement. I like the number of upgrades as well, it made me want to keep playing to unlock everything. The pentagram was awesome!

Oh, one small problem I had was that it was difficult for me to see which part of the runes I had filled it. I'm color blind (deutan), so that might be the issue.
Coda Highland
22. Apr 2024 · 21:28 UTC
@anton-florey I'm glad you liked it! Thanks :)
KrummSakura
22. Apr 2024 · 21:51 UTC
Hand drawn sprites are adorable and the leveling up mechanic is satisfying. Based on the rest of the game, I am sure that you can create a far more appealing UI. Not a major issue but a more prominent visual cue for the rune paths can also be beneficial. Great job!
GuitarBro
25. Apr 2024 · 03:18 UTC
This is a ridiculous concept lol. The gameplay loop was very engaging, kept me wanting to play till level 9 easily before I maxed everything except the bomb/shotgun runes (and then I played 10 anyways cuz I had to finish it at that point :stuck_out_tongue:). Even my beast of a PC was dying with all the explosion particles/lights going on by the end, but I managed to pull through. On a related note, even though the graphics were simple, the whole cardboard aesthetic was really well made, especially with the death causing them to fall apart. That said, the UI could have really used the same love. The audio was solid, only really bad aspect was too many sounds layered on top of each other in the later levels. Would have been nice to change up the background music loop over time or a different one while you're in the upgrade menu or something, just to lessen the repetition, but it gets the job done fine for a jam game. From a technical aspect, the rune drawing actually functioned surprisingly well most of the time, though I frequently ran into cases where bushes were in the way which was a little jank. From a gameplay standpoint, they could probably use a little more balancing since summoning additional chickens was by far the best way to go. (Yes, the complexity of drawing the runes scaled with the power of their effects, but it's pretty trivial to draw all of them even when surrounded.) Of course, ain't nobody got time for fine tuning balance during a game jam, but I figured I'd just mention for completeness.

Overall, definitely one of the more fun entries I've played, so good job there!
bjornstenlund
28. Apr 2024 · 10:44 UTC
I loved it, great entry! The silly setting works prefect for a jam. The intro was great, the introduction screen was concise, and you taught the summoning mechanic but allowed the player to skip!

The graphics looks really neat, and killing enemies breaks the board apart was a nice touch! Killing hordes of sheep (and squirrels for that matter) were really satisfying! I also think that the summoning game mechanic works great in the overall game since it made me have to multitask with that and play a bit more greedy/dangerous.

I'm really impressed that you manage to also enter a minute to minute gameplay loop with upgrading the character :)

I think some things could be a bit clearer with some extra info on the UI. I didn't understand what the runes did initially. I think a rocket ammo in the HUD would be great! Then I think I would have figured the shotgun summons out a bit quicker. I also think that the max number of pentagram chickens scaled with pentagram level (right?), I think that that number (current out of max chickens) would be great in the HUD as well!

It was a bit hard to see where the summoning red line where sometimes, so if I walked to far from it it was little hard walking back to the correct position. Maybe a small indicator when in the correct position could be the solution - so maybe a brighter colour on the summon when it was being worked on, or a glow on the player when in correct position, or maybe a small circle around the part where the edge of the drawing is - I think you get the point.

It was a bit annoying that my chicken summons and some trees where in the way when I tried to summon - honestly I think the simplest solution would be to just allow the player walking through trees and chickens. The Enemies and chicken and rockets could keep colliding as before. Otherwise maybe the trees could be breakable as well? But since I think the map stays the same, maybe it would feel a bit barren towards the end.

In the last level I had some lag, I think it was because of the rocket particles. Maybe if there is a certain rockets active you could switch to a simpler particle emitter, or just turn it off? I played in browser though and I guess that could affect things.

All that said, great game! Probably my favourite, or at least really close, in the whole jam! Well done!
LDJam user 374168
30. Apr 2024 · 04:10 UTC
This was really fun, I liked the shooting mechanic and it was really satisfying shooting down the waves as they come. I really liked the aesthetic you used with the cardboard cutouts, it was very charming. The upgrades were simple yet effective, I found that the shotgun upgrade and run speed were the most helpful. From a balancing perspective, it felt like all I needed was the shotgun, so maybe it could be nerfed or the summons could be buffed. I ended up making it to the end (chikeriki!), and had a blast playing it. Great job!
Tod Semple
01. May 2024 · 05:15 UTC
That art was so amazing. And interesting gameplay. And chickens. This game had it all.
Reulan
01. May 2024 · 23:43 UTC
The paper craft style of your art assets are amazing. This feels like moving around using handmade scenery, so awesome!
Tetracold
02. May 2024 · 10:21 UTC
this art direction is super awesome!! I love the carboard cutouts, such a cool and charming stylistic choice, it really makes the game stand out! the way they break into pieces also makes them very satisfying to break! congrats to the artists for pulling off the style so well!!

the gameplay was very fun! Never felt like the game was too difficult and The summoning element kept it enough fresh and engaging the whole way through. I'd try to spawn as many minions as possible because they'd just absolutely obliterate most enemies that came in my way, it was really funny and satisfying lmao.

The game could use a little bit more variety like more summons and maybe some moves to add a layer of strategy but other than that I had a blast playing this

Awesome entry, great job!
Anton Florey
03. May 2024 · 12:05 UTC
@bjornstenlund The immense lag was caused by our mesh cutting algorithm used to destroy the enemy meshes when they die. For big explosions, many enemies die at once and want to generate their cut mesh in one frame..
We fixed this now by precomputing the cut meshes once (you will notice this now when summoning your first chicken minion now).
Anton Florey
03. May 2024 · 12:07 UTC
@shrillwhip @krummsakura @guitarbro
Our magnificent post-jam version comes with a fresh UI, thanks for your feedback :)
GuitarBro
03. May 2024 · 14:56 UTC
Nice! Good improvement!
Quinnster
03. May 2024 · 23:42 UTC
Really fun game and nice visuals. The only thing holding this back would probably be the UI but I hear you fixed that in the post-jam. I thought the summoning mechanic was really cool great job!