Dead Again

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.56
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.74
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.99
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.56
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.51
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.29
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.43
You have died. The gods have decided to use you in their arena, where the souls of other men and creatures also lay trapped, unable to pass on to the afterlife.
You will have to compete with the others in the arena. If you die, the gods will bring you back to continue competing; a cycle of endless torment. If you win, and perhaps please the gods with your battle prowess in the arena, you might just earn a second chance at life...

When the game starts, you have the opportunity to select a weapon. Each weapon has different stats, like damage, range, and cooldown. Once you choose a weapon, your choice is final until you die again. After each victory, you'll be able to allocate some skill points - these persist after death, so if you're having trouble beating a certain enemy, keep fighting and leveling up.

Though starting with the right weapon will help you overcome certain enemies, sometimes the only way to win is to start with nothing...

Controls


WASD - movement

J - Dash - Increase your speed. If you attack while dashing you'll score a critical hit.

K - Attack

L - Dodge - Allows you to pass through enemies - try pressing it while moving toward your enemy right as they swing to dodge their attack.

Releases


- v1.3 - Big rebalancing. Most enemies have more health and do more damage. Changed the amount of skill points you can allocate and how much you gain.
- v1.2 - Fixed issue where stamina was not upgradeable and where it didn't regenerate after a certain amount
- v1.1 - Fixed a few typos and miscellaneous bugs with skill points and unlockable features (fists)
- v1.0 - Initial release for LD45

Screenshots



Team


Programming: @joe-bustamante, @dtkelch, @jason-porritt, @andyp

Music: @jason-porritt

Info


Graphics

UI elements: Kenney

Font: Retron2000

Sprites: Dungeon Tileset by 0x72

Music made with jxfr and BeepBox

Game development done with Godot

Thanks for playing!


screenshot
Genres: action
Tools: BeepBox, Godot

Comments24

Onat Saygı8 Oct 2019, 00:41
Quick and fun to play game. Nice surprise in the story. The lenght was a little lacking. Dashing and then attacking works too well. Some more variety in viable fighting strategies would be better.
Twelvoo
Twelvoo8 Oct 2019, 00:51
Very fun game!
EoG
EoG8 Oct 2019, 00:58
Really great. Love the music and the graphics and overall feel. The wave of little minion guys all got stuck together for me ;)

Total deaths: 3
ToFuMan8 Oct 2019, 00:58
so... is it just me or I can't really move around?
jordanvang
jordanvang8 Oct 2019, 01:05
Firstly, I found the cover to be appealing. But wow, I was surprised at how the theme was integrated with the game, and I can only praise you for that. I really enjoyed it, and it was quite fun. Perhaps maybe implement more variety in the combat mechanics, as to make it less monotonous (because there felt to be little difference in gameplay depending on which weapon was chosen). I could see this as a larger game, perhaps in the future, but for the timeframe given, it was well-made! Good job!
Doug Graham
Doug Graham8 Oct 2019, 01:09
2 days and a very good rating. Like the take on the theme, wished the controls were a little easier, can't attack up or down, and had to click the dialog and then find the JKL keys again. Great entry. Lot of fun!
ThePelranthean
ThePelranthean8 Oct 2019, 01:37
Hehe. That was great.

Your take on the theme was quite enjoyable. The game's combat was a little loose. For instance, the massed enemies got stuck on each other and most enemies were vulnerable to attacks from below.

However, it was consistent enough to get good at over a few tries and the story was pretty good. More levels would have been nice, but it would be hypocritical for me to realistically expect more. I rarely end up making that many myself in a single weekend.

Overall, good job. It was fun to play.
Sefirost8 Oct 2019, 01:46
I had a little trouble pounching but it is really fun and enjoyable game, nice twist on the theme :) Well done!
Faiorb
Faiorb8 Oct 2019, 01:50
Great execution! The way you presented the theme here was really good, congrats!
The upgrades are a little too strong, but I guess it's good thing here, since we need to rate a lot of other games.
blotosaur8 Oct 2019, 19:02
I liked the final enemy and the take on the theme. I wish there was some visible or audible way to know about the attack cooldown. Great game!
smileyface
smileyface10 Oct 2019, 09:00
Outstanding I loved it. I loved the power fantasy of the game of how you become so powerful by using your bare fists. One thing I will say maybe enemy variety on different runs would have been nice.
Mad Brokli
Mad Brokli10 Oct 2019, 10:04
Great art dude :) love the game
Joe Bustamante
Joe Bustamanteauthor11 Oct 2019, 00:29
@onat-sayg @jordanvang @doug-graham @thepelranthean @faiorb thank you all for playing Dead Again, and taking the time to leave some feedback! Some more variety in both enemies and weapons was definitely up there on the "If only we had more time" list, and we could definitely make the controls a bit more intuitive. So glad you all enjoyed it!
Joe Bustamante
Joe Bustamanteauthor11 Oct 2019, 00:31
@tofuman sorry to hear you were having trouble moving - do you mean the WASD keys weren't working for you?
AlphaDen
AlphaDen11 Oct 2019, 02:19
I did like the characters and the game seems interesting. You can increase the player size(With different graphics ofcourse) and speed up the game a little bit. So that it will make more people to stay.
Its_Jackal11 Oct 2019, 02:21
Took a while to understand dashing baited attacks, so used to waiting then dashing (thanks, Dark Souls).

Great game, fun progression loop, enemy animations definitely add to the appeal. I wish the sprites were bigger so I could get a better look at these lil enemies!
geoff.nagy
geoff.nagy11 Oct 2019, 06:07
This was fun! I initially started using the big sword, but it was a surprise when the smaller group of enemies came at a later level---I had to readjust my tactics! Music was catchy. Controls were responsive. Would be nice to see some variety in enemy attack behaviours in the future; currently, you just get rushed and they park it next to you and hack away. But still fun!
bryvox11 Oct 2019, 08:06
This game was super fun! I love how the theme was used towards the end, really smart. The mechanics and gameplay felt great and I really enjoyed it. I had 3 deaths total before winning. Great work! :)
NunoRibeiro
NunoRibeiro11 Oct 2019, 12:47
One of my favourites of the Jam for sure. I enjoyed a lot the grapichs and the music. The combat was nice but can be improved.
Great job overall!
hwaet
hwaet11 Oct 2019, 18:27
The graphics and music fit together nicely. It's a fun game with nice levels.
MaxKlimenok
MaxKlimenok25 Oct 2019, 14:34
It was fun... Especially the BattleMage... )))
kothead
kothead28 Oct 2019, 18:35
IMHO perfect length for a LD entry. And I like the twist in the end and how it is connected to the theme. Nice game!

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