Strap a sword on your car, and go see familiar dungeons in a whole new way!
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I guess I like player controls that need a lot of fiddling to get right. Halfway through I realized the game felt a lot more intuitive if I just held down the gas for you. It was very confusing to drive in reverse upside down dodging attacks.
This one was a lot of scope and I wish I had time for another pass on the sound, but I just couldn't resist adding the second boss fight instead.
The graphics are bright and crisp, and the controls are smooth and precise. It takes a while to get the hang of aiming so that you hit the enemy instead of driving headlong into it, as i kept doing. But there's a reason these are considered "incompatible genres"! Love the little skidmarks that show up as well. Fun game!
I really enjoyed playing this on! Very simplistic but also very entertaining gameplay. I really appreciate checkpoints on every 'floor' and the variety of enemies plus even two bosses! Controls are very polished and i like little details like tire trail when taking sharp turns. Really great game for Ludum Dare, very impressive and good job!
The other day during the jam I saw this on the feed and I knew I had to play it! I spent a good hour trying to find it again (I know I know search history but I'm tired) and man I love this. Really creative and I had fun too thank you!
Broken record here, but great job again! The thing that impressed me the most about this game was how simple gameplay was transformed so PERFECTLY with the driving mechanic. A split enemy (which are normally annoying) now turns into an opportunity for a sweet drift combo, and a charging enemy now turns into a very satisfying parry minigame where you have to make sure you're facing the right direction at the right time. And of course the last boss reminds me of Gran Turismo trials where you had to tightly turn around 1 pillar. I really do like the potential of this idea and you can go pretty far with adding more Zelda-ish mechanics and tools.
@Lerg thanks for mentioning that, it's good to know when/why people opt out of playing at all! I've been burned a few times by the WebGL builds, so I rely on the PC build in the heat of battle, but I don't see any reason this game can't have a decent experience in the browser. I'll look into shipping a web version as well, and post at @ for you if I manage it. Thanks!
Very interesting concept! :) I really enjoyed it once I got into the mechanics. A few suggestions: having two swords(one on each side) would have been a lot more helpful as well as maybe not having the enemies hurt me simply by touching (even though I admit that might make it to easy). Really enjoyed the game though and would love to see an updated version to it, maybe with some puzzles? :D
Great game feel concept and graphics, I really wish I could control the speed of the car as it was very anxiety producing haha. Would be great if you could have abilities and stuff too.
Drive by stabbing! Love the game, really like the graphics and the gameplay is simple and fun. I love the small details such as the drift marks and the micro "slowdown/lag" when you hit enemies. The only thing this is missing is a catchy soundtrack. Really good job :thumbsup:
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26 Apr 2018, 20:56
I was hit by the same guy three times then spun around in a donut and hit him again and died. 10/10 masterpiece.
The gameplay is super fun and its quite hard to hit those skeletons (they're so unpredictable xD). The only "weak" category is grafics and even there you get +1 star alone for that superiorly designed link-car.
Fantastic game one of my favorites this ludum dare, theme and innovation are 5/5 really deserve to place high in theme category. Sadly I couldnt beat final boss no matter how many times I tried, after 5 times I just gave up.
Super fun entry ! The mechanics are clever, simple, easy to learn, but hard to master. I liked how you handle the learning curve and the mashup is simple but original and works well.
Love it, interesting mechanic that works surprisingly well, liked the zelda nostalgia too, the final boss took me a few goes but got it in the end. Would have loved to have controller support. Nice execution with enough little details to feel good too.
Honestly there aren't many Ludum Dare games that will cause me to buckle down and play over and over no matter how long it takes to win, but this was so good and fun to play it made it into that category! Congrats on a job well done! Such fun. Except I'm going to have nightmares about those friggin' skeletons. BLAST THEM AND THEIR LUNGES!
This was super fun! I like the decision not to add an acceleration key but just to go forward all the time. The two button controls were simple to use and driving by the enemies and hitting them with your sword became pretty intuitive after the first room or two. I died once at the beginning, but once I got a feel for it the rest of the game went by pretty easily.
This could easily be a really fun mobile game with the left and right turns being controlled by pressing in the lower corners of the screen! You should add the ability to place bombs as you travel around.
Very nicely done! The re-imagining of the classic Zelda sprites was great. I like how you stuck with the old color palette.
Thanks everyone for the great feedback! I'm making my way through all of your games, too, so if I haven't gotten to you yet I'm on my way.
@PeachTreeOath, sounds like you really got into the nuances, I love it! I use that same approach you're describing vs the skeletons, love how you described it. Thanks for diving deep.
@MagmaFortress I didn't realize you did LD as well as 7DRL! I don't know if you recall, but my first LD entry (for "you only get one") was inspired by the moment in Hoplite where I'd thrown my spear and needed to go pick it back up. I emailed you about it and you tried my little hammer-tossing game. That was my first LD, this is my twelfth.
Regarding the difficulty - I agree this one is on the tough side. Normally I back it off a bit more for LD so that all comers can enjoy the entry. But there was something about this one... maybe the memory of NES Zelda kicking my young tail with a room full of those knights. Back in those basement days I call still recall getting the raft with the wooden sword, when I was supposed to have already found the upgrade before facing all those knights! Epic battle. I indulged in a little extra difficulty this time, and I hope it didn't exclude anybody too much. If you saw the 4-headed boss, you saw all the fight rooms.
If you want to force things, there's a secret feature: You can hit spacebar at any time to restart, not just when you die. Since the boss fights send you back one room, sometimes it can be more efficient to just reset if you take a few hits early in the pre-boss room. (Yes I tested and you cannot get infinite heart containers this way... anymore).
@minibobbo didn't have any trouble though, wow! Nice driving skills. The "nubs" on the car were intended to hold extra gear, so I imagined dropping a candle-flame, or bombs, or shooting arrows or a boomerrage from that other hand. Though @niterich kind of blew my mind, he's totally right that Link is lefty!! How did I never notice?
@Logicon211 thanks for swinging by even though you didn't get a chance to participate this time. Looking forward to seeing what's next with Killbane and his Nuclear Arms.
Nice way to combine action adventure with racing controls. I felt like the best strategy was to stay on the outside and do laps around the room going clockwise. The enemies were well done and different enough from the Zelda enemies to avoid infringement. I was hoping there would be a Zelda car at the end to rescue, but it was just the old man again. I like the engine and squealing tire sounds that the car made as it went around the room. The length of the game felt appropriate, as it wasn't too short and the boss battles were spaced appropriately.
Amazing combination. More difficult and even more fun than I imagined! I finished the game and I felt like I was getting pretty good at dodging those enemies. Great job with the variety of enemy types and movement patterns, it really helped make the fights more interesting. I like the way you re-interpreted classic Zelda graphics with vector art. The sound was a little rough (engine volume too low) and some music would have been nice.
I think it would have felt more fleshed-out if it had just slightly more Zelda mechanics. It's a little disappointing that enemies never drop anything. Maybe add keys, arrows, or bombs. A small overworld area or a few branching dungeon rooms could have been cool. Maybe even some block-pushing or wall-bombing puzzles. Or alternatively, you could add a few more racing mechanics like timers, checkpoints, boost, fuel, drifting, etc. Of course the scope is very limited by the jam timeframe, but I think the game feels a little sparse and just 1 extra mechanic to keep track of would really make it sparkle.
I really enjoyed playing it, and would love to see the concept expanded upon.
Hahah, nice! Yeah, could have used music for sure, but good job with your entry anyways. Thanks also for being kind to us jammers and including checkpoints for restarting!
@DDRKirbyISQ I would love to learn to make music for these games. A great part of doing a dozen LDs is that I used to think "I can't do art" and "I can't make sound effects", but now I have been forced to learn at least the basics.
Music is kind of the next big mountain to climb. And it's one I've always struggled with. I can even play guitar, but I have sort of a negative-talented ear, and I don't hear and retain and repeat melodies the way most humans seem to be able to. Whenever I dive into trying to compose music, it becomes a giant timesink that produces a poor result. But I hope to someday find the right strategy to *get started with something*: maybe arpeggios or ambiance or something.
Because I totally agree with you that this game could use some music.
@pkenney Starting simple sounds good! You'd be suprised by how much you can do with even a single instrument. Learning through copying and/or modification is also another good one: start with someone else's project file and tweak it a bit, so you already start with something that sounds good, but you can put your own spin on it.
(Of course I have been producing for 14 years so perhaps I am not the right person to be advising you on how to get your footing)
Comments52
Hilarious concept, and I love the title! I like how the car looks like Link.
But in all seriousness, this is a fantastic game in every aspect. Can't really add anything that hasn't already been said. Great job!
Would rate you top marks for sure, but we didn't get a game in this time :(. Keep up the awesome work!
This could easily be a really fun mobile game with the left and right turns being controlled by pressing in the lower corners of the screen! You should add the ability to place bombs as you travel around.
Very nicely done! The re-imagining of the classic Zelda sprites was great. I like how you stuck with the old color palette.
@PeachTreeOath, sounds like you really got into the nuances, I love it! I use that same approach you're describing vs the skeletons, love how you described it. Thanks for diving deep.
@MagmaFortress I didn't realize you did LD as well as 7DRL! I don't know if you recall, but my first LD entry (for "you only get one") was inspired by the moment in Hoplite where I'd thrown my spear and needed to go pick it back up. I emailed you about it and you tried my little hammer-tossing game. That was my first LD, this is my twelfth.
Regarding the difficulty - I agree this one is on the tough side. Normally I back it off a bit more for LD so that all comers can enjoy the entry. But there was something about this one... maybe the memory of NES Zelda kicking my young tail with a room full of those knights. Back in those basement days I call still recall getting the raft with the wooden sword, when I was supposed to have already found the upgrade before facing all those knights! Epic battle. I indulged in a little extra difficulty this time, and I hope it didn't exclude anybody too much. If you saw the 4-headed boss, you saw all the fight rooms.
If you want to force things, there's a secret feature: You can hit spacebar at any time to restart, not just when you die. Since the boss fights send you back one room, sometimes it can be more efficient to just reset if you take a few hits early in the pre-boss room. (Yes I tested and you cannot get infinite heart containers this way... anymore).
@minibobbo didn't have any trouble though, wow! Nice driving skills. The "nubs" on the car were intended to hold extra gear, so I imagined dropping a candle-flame, or bombs, or shooting arrows or a boomerrage from that other hand. Though @niterich kind of blew my mind, he's totally right that Link is lefty!! How did I never notice?
@Logicon211 thanks for swinging by even though you didn't get a chance to participate this time. Looking forward to seeing what's next with Killbane and his Nuclear Arms.
Thanks again, all!
I think it would have felt more fleshed-out if it had just slightly more Zelda mechanics. It's a little disappointing that enemies never drop anything. Maybe add keys, arrows, or bombs. A small overworld area or a few branching dungeon rooms could have been cool. Maybe even some block-pushing or wall-bombing puzzles. Or alternatively, you could add a few more racing mechanics like timers, checkpoints, boost, fuel, drifting, etc. Of course the scope is very limited by the jam timeframe, but I think the game feels a little sparse and just 1 extra mechanic to keep track of would really make it sparkle.
I really enjoyed playing it, and would love to see the concept expanded upon.
Music is kind of the next big mountain to climb. And it's one I've always struggled with. I can even play guitar, but I have sort of a negative-talented ear, and I don't hear and retain and repeat melodies the way most humans seem to be able to. Whenever I dive into trying to compose music, it becomes a giant timesink that produces a poor result. But I hope to someday find the right strategy to *get started with something*: maybe arpeggios or ambiance or something.
Because I totally agree with you that this game could use some music.
(Of course I have been producing for 14 years so perhaps I am not the right person to be advising you on how to get your footing)
I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.
I hope you continue with the project.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape
Please, take a look at my game too: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/confessional