KILLWARE by deadjolly

Descend into CYBERNET with your *KILLWARE unit!*
HOVER and BOOST to avoid Firewalls and Shockcircuits!
Destroy rogue AI constructs with the *KILLWARE's AUTOCANNON and MISSILE arsenal!*
*Destroyed AI drop BITS, which can buy UPGRADES for the *KILLWARE!
How far can you DIVE into CYBERNET?
Thanks for playing!
CONTROLS: - WASD - STRAFE - Mouse - AIM - LMB - AUTOCANNON - RMB - MISSILE - Shift - BOOST - Space - HOVER
CREDITS: - Art & Design | @deadjolly - Programming | @cody-raethke - Music & Sfx | @trevor-lentz - Programming | @voraciousghost
KNOWN ISSUES: - TODO
CHANGELOG:
4.7.25 | 1.0 - First version published
4.8.25 | 1.1 - Fixed electrical fields not showing - Fixed tower scaling/clipping - Fixed missing UI elements - Balance changes
4.10.25 | 1.2 - Fix shop items not buyable on subsequent playthroughs - Add bit counter, make bits yellow in shop to make them more visible - Balance changes
Older versions available at itch.io: https://stickyshift.itch.io/killware
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/killware |
Ratings
| Overall | 328th | 3.69⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 374th | 3.466⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 484th | 3.172⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 789th | 2.724⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 219th | 4.103⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 220th | 3.69⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 555th | 2.5⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 416th | 3.603⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 34🗳️ | 62🗨️ |
EDIT: Fixed with version 1.1
You nailed the interface and the overall style is just... *chefs kiss*. Great work here! Gameplay is good too- very good work on tight controls.
What was the most difficult thing to tackle during the jam and making this project?
After a while it starts to feel a bit repetitive — would be great to see more enemy variety, noticeable speed increases, or some extra challenges over time.
Overall, nice work!
had some troubles to find BITS counter in the shop at first
Overall a great entry! Easily top 10% ive played so far :)
@popdaddygames Thank you! The UI was definitely the hardest part. The UI assets took up almost an entire day on their own. Don't know if we'll go that hard on UI again next time ;)
@basekeet AC was definitely an inspiration! Good suggestions, we only had so much time to implement what we could
@sarah-upton Thank you!
@donutshoes Impressive, most of us couldn't make past it level 3 or 4!
@dandee That's exactly how we felt about past entries, so we wanted to make it a focal point this time! Thanks!
@arkansaslover Thanks!
@duke-ua That's what we were trying to achieve, thanks!
@aveezavr Yeah, the bit counter could be more obvious as well as in the main HUD. Glad you liked it!
@dreo Bit Counter could be more clear! Level 3 is hard, level 4 is almost impossible. Thanks for playing!
@anton-florey Y/N could have doubled as key presses, good call! Top 10%?! Thank you for the kind words!
That said, fighting robot go zoom! Enemies go boom! Dodging left, right and up kept me engaged! Thanks for sharing!
Hyper missiles for the win
The following comments should be taken in the context of me saying this is a very good game. These suggestions are for polish to take it to the next level, not to disparage your hard work.
* It's hard to tell what's going to hurt you. Turret bullets and bomb blasts are kind of hard to see, and I'm not sure where the hitboxes on the flaming skulls are.
* Having to pick bits up instead of having them auto-collect doesn't feel good IMO, especially since the bombs can get in the way.
* Damage (both to you and to the enemies) could feel more impactful overall. A punchy sound effect and a nice sharp visual cue would make things feel more powerful and significant.
* The UI looks great but it's not always obvious what's supposed to be a button. A different font might also really help tie together the sci-fi aesthetic.
* You can get a feel for the timing, but some sort of cue to indicate missile recharge would be nice.
I didn't like the main menu button having ">" appear when hovered over, made it harder to read and confusing. The confirmation Y/N buttons were cool but a little small. I didn't like the fact that the flying guys dropped bombs and coins, I'm not sure if coins autopickup or if you need to get close but it felt bad when you go for the treasure and still take damage from a defeated enemy (you could just have the coins float towards the player instead of falling down). It was hard to say when the shooting enemy would damage you and what to do to not get hit (except for killing it first, you could dodge the rest of the damage), and since it felt like they were a priority target I tried to prioritize them, but due to the perspective the target lock sometimes made it difficult.
The UI is clean, the overall style that the game has going for itself is sound, and I like the premise of diving into and exploring a cyberspace, though I can't help but feel like that last part could have been expanded upon a little more within the game.
I also found defeating the enemies a little tricky. Based on my experience, unless you start attacking them *right* as they appears on-screen, you're not gonna have enough time to deal the damage needed to destroy them. This is a bit demotivating to me as a player, since I can't get BITS in any other way. Perhaps if some of them were spread across the track, it wouldn't have had that much of an effect on my experience.
Lastly, I don't know whether this is a technical issue on my end, but the player model glitches out *a lot*, which while not too much of a problem in itself, can get overwhelmingly distracting. Despite all that, I can still see and appreciate the effort that went into KILLWARE's creation. Nice work, the four of you!
@k48uto Glad you liked the UI!
@sleepyfikou Thank you, glad you liked the UI and had fun!
@dovodx We considered unlimited shooting but felt the cooldown created a bit more challenge. You can also boost or hover past enemies in a pinch as well! Not sure what's going on with the window on ultrawide? (My setup is not ultrawide)
@mcgiants Glad you were engaged! Yeah, good point about bits and bombs not mixing well.
@nomus What was going on with the screen? Sorry it was buggy for you, seemed fine on our end!
@coda-highland Font choice was directly inspired by certain 90's anime. Your suggestions are well-warranted and appreciated! I agree with you!
@ellaris Yeah, bomb and bits being at odds is a common theme in the feedback. Thanks for playing!
@clink I did have fun designing everything! Glad you noticed details like the guns auto-tracking! What did the player-model do specifically? First time hearing that feedback! Definitely wanted to do more with diving into cyberspace, but ran out of time. Thank you for the detailed feedback!