Well, my first shot at the comp is done, and I’ve got to say, I had a blast. Tried to get my game done in time for the official comp, but by the time the deadline rolled around, I wasn’t close to finishing.

Loved the theme too! Really went minimalist for everything with this. No real instructions, no score, no visible health, simple controls, and hopefully fun gameplay. Counter your enemies’ attacks, and kill them before they kill you. Difficulty ramps up as you go. Enemies are more likely to counter your attacks, and they attack you much quicker.

Enemies and character are also totally random, so you may never get the same guy twice

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=20811

So it seems the comments for my game are split down the middle: half seem to like that there are no instructions, and it’s a bit more rewarding once you figure out the visual clues for the gameplay, the other half think that that instructions would have made it less frustrating to jump into the gameplay and just start chopping guys in half right away

One of the problems we face as designers, is we always know what to do when we test our games. Boss battles are always easy since we know the pattern, and hints are always clear, because we know they are there. In this case, I took the minimalism approach to the instructions as well and just left a hint above the first battle.

So try it out, and let me know: more fun observing and figuring it out, or add instructions so you can jump right into gameplay.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=20811

M.