Hello there here is my entry, this is the first time I try to use Java to create a game on Ludum Dare (Usually I use Unity or Haxe) but well I tried and here is the result:
Field of bodies is a Zombie Survival game where the most dangerous thing is running out of space due to dead bodies.
Cool Features: - Upgrade Weapons. - Survivors with different AIs. - Shoot at zombies. - Find new weapons!
Warning: For an optimal experience you need a mouse to play this game. I hope you have fun killing some zombs! :)
The controls took me moment to figure out, but I appreciate what you're going for - holding S to back away from where you're aiming makes sense for this game :) It is sometimes a little awkward sometimes when you find yourself moving directly under the mouse, because no button will move you until you move the mouse away, and that killed me a few times. Otherwise, good job! I liked the variety of things you could do at night.
I liked this a lot! Cool wave-based stuff with the options after each wave. I also dig that the zombies bodies stay after each level, and it's an interesting design choice to make the level a little lighter after each zombie kill.
Cute little game. Idk, it was my problem or control feel a little clunky because character movement it is related to mouse instead of keyboard and sometimes I rust run in circles into zombies hug. Overall, I think it is a nice game, but you should consider control calibrating.
I liked the game, the controls are a bit weird, I'd rather move relatively to the keyboard while aiming with the mouse. Also I'm not sure if it was intended but when I shoot it felt like it was always aiming a bit to the right of the cursor. Nice entry overall :)
Good overall submission! Nice dark twist of the theme, really enjoyed the feeling of finding new weapons & survivors and seeing what they did and how they worked. Some subjective critique incoming; the movement felt a bit weird but I get that this is just a type of movement I'm unfamiliar with but I would've really enjoyed a 4-way move system that is more commonly found in top-down games. Thanks for this submission, good job!
Movements controls better did: W - north, S - south, A - west, D - east, without depends from mouse position. Is more comfort. Good what dead bodies not clears after night. And think what need friendly fire. And maybe not bad make some dead zombies "still alive and dangerous" to sudden attack when you come close. Good idea with AI-survivors for support.
Thank you all for your reviews, you are awesome guys! They always keep me motivated and willing to improve and participate in the next Ludum Dare!
About the controls, I'm a bit disapointed that some people disliked them, but at the same time, it's an error that I won't make on the future so it's cool to have your feedback it really helps.
@andreymust19, Thanks for the review! It's LibGDX for rendering, input and audio and my self-made physics and stuff. (My personal challenge for this LD was to avoid using a Fully Featured Game Engine)
So cool! I had the exact same idea for the theme but we went for something else, I am glad someone tried it XD. I really like that you can chose different options between the waves of zombies, really interesting mechanic there!
Very fun, took some time to get it running with java but was worth it.
I got 4 sniper survivors in a row, had to do almost nothing. So after getting bored I restarted and had a lot more fun :) The soundeffects feel a bit weird though, as if they're recorded from some distance. Obviously nobody has great recording hardware, but perhaps you could've made it feel "oomph" with some software? Of course you might not have had the time, but I thought I'd just mention it anyway :)
The options each night were really well chosen. It was never "pick x if y else z" but more a thoughtful process which I really like.
@winnie33 ohh you had a great team (You are lucky)! :) I was considering to limit the number of every character (There are 4 of them: Selfish, Coward, Protector, and Sniper), but then in one stress test I spawned like 30 NPCs and a quarter of them were snipers and we died anyway at night 49, so as I saw that we weren't unbeatable I kept this logic.
Great use of the theme. We had similar ideas on how to handle the theme (enemy corpses stays and block you)
The gameplay was fun but was hindered by the movement system. I would recommend having aim and movement not affecting each other so W is always walking north and S south. I'm impressed by all the content you managed to add. Managed to get to night 8 after a few tries.
Small note: In your title screen it says "Game made in 48" 48 what :smile:
I appreciate the aesthetic you came up with here. It worked well. I like the upgrade system. A couple issues I had are in some places the font used seemed out of place and the movement system took a lot of getting used to. Overall, great entry and nice work.
Really compelling submission, the only real note I have for you is that the movement system is kinds clunky, having the directional keys mapped to the 4 cardinal directions would have made is a little more intuitive
This is really good. It's fun to replay as well. Agree with almighttuna about the controls. But otherwise I think you might win the compo or atleast top 10 easily. Remember I called it if you do :O
There is not enough opportunity to shoot just having clamped the mouse button.
And the weapon recharge seems to me superfluous in such games, imho. I removed a recharge in my game at the earliest development stages for more jun.
Perhaps, once you make visible area not on center, and to show more in front, and less behind player. It will force the player to be turned and look around more.
Blah, couldn't get past the controls after four tries. I understand abstractly what I'm supposed to do, but I'd've been greatly helped if the view 'rotated' with my orientation.
I'd suggesting changing the controls to keep shooting as you hold the mouse button, like Monolith. It's more comfortable for the player than to keep clicking repeatedly. Also since you exported a .jar, remember it's cross-platform, so you can add more platforms to the files section.
But despite what some people said above, having the player always looking at the cursor isn't really a problem for me. Good job overall.
@endurion Thanks for your review! If you survive enough nights you will see that all the dead bodies remain on the ground and it's harder and harder to scape due to the lack of space (Then the button remove bodies becomes more and more important and also where are you killing the zombies).
Controls were pretty odd for me and cost me a lot to get used to it. Not that much the aiming but the movement, I would have the movement independent to where the player is looking at. Apart from that, it's a simple game but I like what you did with the choices at the end of each night, it gives the game good replayability.
Cool game there, mate! One thing I did not really enjoy in particular was the movement. As others said, it is pretty hard to go in the right direction the way you handle movement, because pointing your gun changes the direction you will move. It would have been a bit clearer if you could only use W-A, I think (or just make the input independent from the pointing). Anyways, it was a pretty nice game, good job!
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Nice dark twist of the theme, really enjoyed the feeling of finding new weapons & survivors and seeing what they did and how they worked.
Some subjective critique incoming; the movement felt a bit weird but I get that this is just a type of movement I'm unfamiliar with but I would've really enjoyed a 4-way move system that is more commonly found in top-down games.
Thanks for this submission, good job!
Good what dead bodies not clears after night. And think what need friendly fire.
And maybe not bad make some dead zombies "still alive and dangerous" to sudden attack when you come close.
Good idea with AI-survivors for support.
And... is jMonkey Engine?
About the controls, I'm a bit disapointed that some people disliked them, but at the same time, it's an error that I won't make on the future so it's cool to have your feedback it really helps.
I got 4 sniper survivors in a row, had to do almost nothing. So after getting bored I restarted and had a lot more fun :)
The soundeffects feel a bit weird though, as if they're recorded from some distance. Obviously nobody has great recording hardware, but perhaps you could've made it feel "oomph" with some software? Of course you might not have had the time, but I thought I'd just mention it anyway :)
The options each night were really well chosen. It was never "pick x if y else z" but more a thoughtful process which I really like.
Overall a really great game!
The gameplay was fun but was hindered by the movement system. I would recommend having aim and movement not affecting each other so W is always walking north and S south. I'm impressed by all the content you managed to add. Managed to get to night 8 after a few tries.
Small note: In your title screen it says "Game made in 48" 48 what :smile:
And the weapon recharge seems to me superfluous in such games, imho. I removed a recharge in my game at the earliest development stages for more jun.
Perhaps, once you make visible area not on center, and to show more in front, and less behind player. It will force the player to be turned and look around more.
But despite what some people said above, having the player always looking at the cursor isn't really a problem for me. Good job overall.
As others said (pretty much every one ;) ) - the control method is uncommon and that contributes to a few useless deaths.
How does the theme come into this? It didn't seem obvious to me.
Apart from that, it's a simple game but I like what you did with the choices at the end of each night, it gives the game good replayability.
Loved the different upgrades.