Medieval Melody Mayhem
---
Tower Defense X Rhythm Game
---
Gameplay
You need to __protect the Fort!__Enemies will come rushing from both sides, if they reach the castle in the center, they will deal damage to it.
To protect the fort, you will need to hit the __prompt keys__ displayed above the enemies,
as they cross one of the lines to the left or the right of the castle.
There are __two enemy types__:
- __Zombies__
These are the regular enemies.
They are killable with __a single key press__.
- __Wizards__
These guys are tougher than zombies.
They take __two key presses__ to kill and they __deal more damage__.
As you kill the enemies, you get to listen to some little tunes :)
_(If you don't miss them, that is)_
The longer you survive, the more difficult the game becomes;
enemies start moving and spawning quicker.
Controls
Hit the __keys__ shown in the __prompts__ above the enemies,as they cross one of the gray lines.
__Escape__ - __Quit__ the game
Win / Lose Conditions
Lose Condition
You will lose the game if the Fort runs out of Health.Win Condition
None. The game continues indefinitely,and becomes exponentially more difficult as time goes on.
Try to survive as long as you can, and gain as many points as possible,
before you reach your _inevitable death_.
Software Used
| __VIM__ | Text Editor |
| __Gimp__ | Graphics |
| __[Bosca Ceoil][bosca-ceoil]__ | For the tunes |
| __[Audacity][audacity]__ | For extracting the tunes |
| __Git__ | Version Control |
| [__Gosu__][gosu] | Ruby game library |
| [__Ocra__][ocra-gem] | For building windows executable |
Credits
| __Graphics__ | @hoichael |
| __Audio__ | A Friend |
| __Coding__ | @noahro _(me)_ |
Development Information
This game is written in __Ruby__ version __2.5.1__ using the game library [__Gosu__][gosu].We used [this Trello Board][trello-board] for task management during development.
Changelog
__2018-04-24__ - _Past submission hour!_- Make Wizards give more points than Zombies _(5 -> 15 points)_
Installation
If you are on __Windows__ you should have no problems downloading and running the [executable][windows-executable].---
This was our second Ludum Dare game jam, and compared to our [previous entry][ludum-dare-game-previous],
I am _extremely_ happy the way it turned out.
There were some features and ideas we had to cut out, but I managed to implement almost everything that I had planned.
I was very unpleased with our previous ([failed/unfinished][ludum-dare-game-previous]) attempt at LD40,
so being able to release a _finished_ (and some-what fun, IMO) product this time makes me _very happy!_ :)
I hope some of you get a bit of enjoyment out of this game!
---
__Have fun playing all these interesting LD41 games!__
[thumbnail]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Noah2610/LD41/master/Thumbnail.png
[ludum-dare-game]: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/medieval-melody-mayhem
[bosca-ceoil]: https://boscaceoil.net/
[audacity]: http://www.audacityteam.org/
[ocra-gem]: https://github.com/larsch/ocra/
[gosu]: https://www.libgosu.org/ruby.html
[trello-board]: https://trello.com/b/pkaQPFyW/ld41
[windows-executable]: https://github.com/Noah2610/LD41/raw/master/MedievalMelodyMayhem.exe
[wine]: https://wiki.winehq.org/Download
[github-repository]: https://github.com/Noah2610/LD41
[ludum-dare-game-previous]: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/mother-earth-failed-planet
Comments22
bar0net24 Apr 2018, 09:53
Congrats on completing LD41! I liked the combination of genres but I felt the game was a bit hard (or I am really bad a typing). I think that some music would be a good improvement and some key or button to restart the game once you died would also help.
NoahRo24 Apr 2018, 18:25
@GiovanniBarrottu Thanks for the feedback!
I guess I haven't quite realized the difficulty of the game, as I've been playing it during development and have gotten good at it.
I agree with it needing more polish. It was getting very close to submission hour when we first started tweaking the game's settings (ie. colors, animations, enemies, ...), and I'm not too happy with how that turned out. A couple more hours of playing and tweaking would have really been good for the game.
I guess I haven't quite realized the difficulty of the game, as I've been playing it during development and have gotten good at it.
I agree with it needing more polish. It was getting very close to submission hour when we first started tweaking the game's settings (ie. colors, animations, enemies, ...), and I'm not too happy with how that turned out. A couple more hours of playing and tweaking would have really been good for the game.
NoahRo24 Apr 2018, 18:30
@bar0net Thanks for playing!
The game gets very hard after a while, should have paid more attention to it the difficulty.
Yes, some background music would have been nice; we were planning to implement some, but didn't have enough time at the end. Also, I had some doubts about background music even working with the game, as the rhythm would quickly offset from the enemies' tunes rhythm.
Oh totally, a reset button would have been really nice. I usually like implementing one into my games, but this time I totally forgot!
Thanks for the feedback!
The game gets very hard after a while, should have paid more attention to it the difficulty.
Yes, some background music would have been nice; we were planning to implement some, but didn't have enough time at the end. Also, I had some doubts about background music even working with the game, as the rhythm would quickly offset from the enemies' tunes rhythm.
Oh totally, a reset button would have been really nice. I usually like implementing one into my games, but this time I totally forgot!
Thanks for the feedback!
Brendan Toy25 Apr 2018, 00:02
over all this just compounded for me that i am in fact an utter failure at typing... :( lol i suck at the game :) not bad though, nice design, does what it sets out to do well :) great stuff :)
NoahRo25 Apr 2018, 00:08
@Brendan-Toy Thanks for your time!
This game might help you improve your typing skills :P
This game might help you improve your typing skills :P
theomaniacal25 Apr 2018, 02:21
Overall very cool concept! I liked the decision to play a musical note when defending the tower successfully. I'm sure with more time, you could have done something really cool rhythmically with that design.
Also, thank you for letting me defend my tower by mashing my face into the keyboard.
Wish there was a restart button!
Also, thank you for letting me defend my tower by mashing my face into the keyboard.
Wish there was a restart button!
NoahRo25 Apr 2018, 03:05
@theomaniacal Thanks for the feedback!
Yup, I should have definitely added a reset button.
Be sure to not break your keyboard (or your face :P )!
Yup, I should have definitely added a reset button.
Be sure to not break your keyboard (or your face :P )!
Gumboot25 Apr 2018, 06:12
I always enjoy these types of games because they make me want to play over and over to get as far as I can. The first time I played the game I had a hard time locating the bars that you are supposed to press the keys on. I think a brighter color would have helped those to stand out more. Surprisingly fun little game, good job!
Tyrod25 Apr 2018, 06:35
This is very very hard my brain can't follow my hands ! But still like the concept :p
Carthage25 Apr 2018, 08:08
Clever idea! Would be neat to see integration into some background music. Well done!
agrdev27 Apr 2018, 21:00
Nice idea! Liked the background art. The game appeared to be extremely difficult since the very beginning, but it's possible to get used to it after several tries. Good job!
stardynamic27 Apr 2018, 22:23
Hi. The background art is awesome. As others have said in the comments, the game moves too quickly and the addition of background music would be nice. I'm excited to see your next LD submission!
TheMonsterFromTheDeep28 Apr 2018, 05:46
I think the option for larger bars would be nice. The problem, especially, is that it's easy to start typing for a wizard slightly before they get in the box, and once you realize that your first letter went through, you've typed the second letter and then there's not enough time left to retype both letters.
MacDoom28 Apr 2018, 16:16
Super ingenious combination!
Also super hard from the beginning if you dont know the keyboard by heart.
The idea was well implemented but I think that if one of the main features is the melody, it should have been more elaborated. The lack of a background music to the melody is really needed here.
Nice work!
Also super hard from the beginning if you dont know the keyboard by heart.
The idea was well implemented but I think that if one of the main features is the melody, it should have been more elaborated. The lack of a background music to the melody is really needed here.
Nice work!
NoahRo28 Apr 2018, 17:51
@agrdev Yeah, @hoichael did an awesome job on the background image (he's a beginner pixel-artist)! Yes, it's very difficult, should have tweaked the difficulty more. Thanks!
@stardynamic I like background art as well, but background music is definitely missing. The game starts off moving quite quickly and just becomes insanely more difficult as time goes on; very unbalanced. Thanks, I'll definitely try to release a more finished and polished game next time!
@TheMonsterFromTheDeep I never really had the problem with starting to type too soon, but I guess I've gotten used to the game's speed the most already. I actually increased the bars' sizes shortly before releasing, but now after the jam has ended, I think it would have been best if their size would scale as the difficulty went up, as it becomes quite impossible to hit wizard prompts when it gets too fast. The game's definitely not polished enough! Thanks for the feedback!
@MacDoom The tunes for the enemies dying were developed on the last day as a kind of last minute favor request from a friend. If we were to have done everything more timely we could have implemented a better musical integration. Thanks!
---
I should probably mentioned this in the game's description, but whatever.
The game has a bunch of settings defined in the file `settings.yml` in the source code; originally I was planning to put a lot of comments in it, describing what each value effects, and make the executable read from that file so its settings would be used. The player would have had the option to tweak the game to their liking. Sadly, I didn't have time for that, and the settings file is built into the executable now.
People who enjoyed the game but found it too difficult _( everybody :P )_ could have gone into that file and made some minor changes to make it more playable for them. Would have been cool if I had managed to implement that in time.
Well, maybe next time :)
_Thanks everyone for playing, anyway!_
@stardynamic I like background art as well, but background music is definitely missing. The game starts off moving quite quickly and just becomes insanely more difficult as time goes on; very unbalanced. Thanks, I'll definitely try to release a more finished and polished game next time!
@TheMonsterFromTheDeep I never really had the problem with starting to type too soon, but I guess I've gotten used to the game's speed the most already. I actually increased the bars' sizes shortly before releasing, but now after the jam has ended, I think it would have been best if their size would scale as the difficulty went up, as it becomes quite impossible to hit wizard prompts when it gets too fast. The game's definitely not polished enough! Thanks for the feedback!
@MacDoom The tunes for the enemies dying were developed on the last day as a kind of last minute favor request from a friend. If we were to have done everything more timely we could have implemented a better musical integration. Thanks!
---
I should probably mentioned this in the game's description, but whatever.
The game has a bunch of settings defined in the file `settings.yml` in the source code; originally I was planning to put a lot of comments in it, describing what each value effects, and make the executable read from that file so its settings would be used. The player would have had the option to tweak the game to their liking. Sadly, I didn't have time for that, and the settings file is built into the executable now.
People who enjoyed the game but found it too difficult _( everybody :P )_ could have gone into that file and made some minor changes to make it more playable for them. Would have been cool if I had managed to implement that in time.
Well, maybe next time :)
_Thanks everyone for playing, anyway!_
Shivur30 Apr 2018, 08:27
Way too fast. Good graphics.
StrangerYann10 May 2018, 15:12
Oh my god this game is so hard ^^# OK so IMO here's what the game is lacking ang what may be overkill:
-these damn grey lines ^^# I'd argue it could be a lot more playable if ANY ENEMY ON THE SCREEN can be killed by pressing a keyboard key at any time, forget the grey lines ^^#
-a main screen the game loads up to, with like a little animation on the BG image and a little looping song and whatnot
-a "start game" menu in amove screen
-a "restart" button on the game over screen
I feel the foes should be slower at the start then get faster as the game goes on
I mean all in all it's a pretty good-looking and well-made game, I ain't saying.
... It's just way too hard - that would be my main complaint ^^# - well done nonetheless, I had some fun checking it out :-)
-these damn grey lines ^^# I'd argue it could be a lot more playable if ANY ENEMY ON THE SCREEN can be killed by pressing a keyboard key at any time, forget the grey lines ^^#
-a main screen the game loads up to, with like a little animation on the BG image and a little looping song and whatnot
-a "start game" menu in amove screen
-a "restart" button on the game over screen
I feel the foes should be slower at the start then get faster as the game goes on
I mean all in all it's a pretty good-looking and well-made game, I ain't saying.
... It's just way too hard - that would be my main complaint ^^# - well done nonetheless, I had some fun checking it out :-)
NoahRo11 May 2018, 15:38
@StrangerYann Because our mix of genres included _Rhythm Game_ we planned from the beginning to have those gray lines, I never really thought about removing them, but also that would probably break the _rhythm component_ of the game; I see your point though.
In general, the game lacks polish and art (textures, animations, music, main menu, etc.).
Also a reset button is definitely missing.
I should have given difficulty balancing more attention towards the end, but we simply ran out of time. It is definitely way too difficult in its current state.
Thanks for playing and for your constructive feedback! :)
In general, the game lacks polish and art (textures, animations, music, main menu, etc.).
Also a reset button is definitely missing.
I should have given difficulty balancing more attention towards the end, but we simply ran out of time. It is definitely way too difficult in its current state.
Thanks for playing and for your constructive feedback! :)
interesting take on the theme though.