Night Keeper

by sleepystudios

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.59

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.30

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.77

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.00

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.70

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.48

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.00

Night Keeper

Protect your fire from hordes of nightmares. Stay in the light to keep yourself sane.

Use WASD or Arrow Keys to move. Click/hold to shoot.

Postjam changes

- Fixed text scaling on Mac
- Tiny optimisations
- Slightly better leaderboard UX
- Press space to play again/restart

Credits

SFX credits (edited and processed from freesound.org):
- Zglar - big demon hit
- Smcameron - void hit
- Lerdavian - cat hit
- Thanvannispen - bat hit
- Breviceps - tentacle hit
- Lucasduff - player hit
- Robinhood76 - pick up wood
- Qubodup - stoke fire
- LiamG_SFX - fire arrow
- PhreaKsAccount - fire crackle
- Swuing - footsteps

Leaderboard system (made for the jam)

https://github.com/SleepyStudios/simple-leaderboard-system

Tags: #2d, #atmospheric, #horror, #pixel art, #tower defense

Genres: action

Comments23

Slowpoke22 Apr 2020, 08:23

Great game, very fleshed out and polished. Amazing to see an entire leaderboard built with it. Good sound design, fun to play with a natural difficulty curve. Does hurt my hand a tiny bit on a trackpad but I think that says more about my trackpad than anything else. Really well done!

Gorypixels22 Apr 2020, 14:56

Just awesome! Loved the little details, like the amount of red "Eyes" as an indicator of life left, a simple gameplay loop to understand, but the right kind of difficult to master, great job!

LurkerRIP22 Apr 2020, 14:59

The Camera effects were awesome! The mechanics were quite fun!

Waqar Naeem22 Apr 2020, 14:59

nice game man

Ducky22 Apr 2020, 15:01

It gave me the spook!

Wolfier22 Apr 2020, 15:08

Personally i'd much rather be defending myself rather then the fire since the fire is often off screen while you look for wood.
This is definitely the more unique of the "keep the fire alive" games.

JonasMumm22 Apr 2020, 15:09

Good one! The main mechanic feels well though out and the game is very well put together overall. I was especially impressed by the amount of enemy types and the inclusion of a leaderboard. And as mentioned before I noticed the amount of creatures' eyes representing their hitpoints, very clever idea!

Duskel22 Apr 2020, 15:10

The idea is awesome ! it's a really cool game :D

Pandapear22 Apr 2020, 15:10

This is a really fleshed-out game! I had a lot of fun playing it. I kept getting annoyed at my trackpad (windows doesn't let you type and move the mouse at the same time), but that's the fault of my computer, not your game. I loved all the sound effects and the creepy music - they really set you on edge, and give the game a very polished feel.

Tadej22 Apr 2020, 15:12

Love the monster design and the health bars, really cool.

TheStreet22 Apr 2020, 15:13

Very very nice. It is an interesting concept of lighting the way with arrows to try and find more fire wood but it seems sorta ineffective? I was much easier to rush fire wood and have the fire burn as bright as possible to find fire wood. It was unclear how much health I had left so it kinda felt like I die randomly. Overall interesting concept and fun game play loop.

Barney2505222 Apr 2020, 15:14

I really like the use of the eyes to show how much health a monster has.

oramun22 Apr 2020, 15:25

I really enjoyed this game. I thought the mechanic of firing the arrow through the fire to extend you vision was really unique and the lighting really set the mood

sacredbacon22 Apr 2020, 15:33

Tone was well established with the fading flame, and the enemy variation was great. Combat was felt solid, great idea to light the arrows up. Also ended up using the arrows to path out the branches so i wouldn't get lost. Very impressed you implemented a leaderboard. Great Job!

schizoid2k24 Apr 2020, 17:43

Nice take on the theme. Sound and lighting effects captured the mood. Fighting was awesome... keeping that fire lit was a bit of a challenge when it got darker, but I guess that's the point! :smile:

codyhansen26 Apr 2020, 05:42

I loved all the subtle movements of the camera. The view of the game was extremely smooth and professional. The design of the creates especially were extremely well done.

I had a hard time finding any wood, but maybe that's just me. After the fire went out, I was able to stay alive only shooting at the eyes I could see in the darkness. I was alive longer after the fire went out than before.

All in all, I love the atmosphere this game creates. Well done!

Baconinvader27 Apr 2020, 12:23

Game felt very polished and well made. I like the leaderboard system especially (the *secret* feature in it is cool too!). I think it would have been better if the sticks respawned over time though.

SleepyStudiosauthor27 Apr 2020, 14:10

@baconinvader thanks! The sticks do actually respawn over time just not in the same places.

Morriekken27 Apr 2020, 20:11

Darkness was too much for me ;) I like the idea but I struggled with enemies as they came from zero to such numbers that I couldn't cope with them... but hey maybe I'm just not fit to fight the darkness?

Plenty of game for such short time.

Jupiter_Hadley6 May 2020, 16:51

Nice game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/p2lUl96x8_U

SleepyStudiosauthor7 May 2020, 08:16

@jupiter-hadley Cheers!

Clipper9 May 2020, 01:02

The game has a climatic atmosphere that resembles me of Dont Starve. I liked it because of that I guess haha. Anyways the great point is variety of included enemies. Cleverly displayed their HP.

Prakkus10 May 2020, 20:09

This is a great concept and the graphics, mood, etc are all really well executed. I also love the simlicity of the mechanics and how they worked together, like the flame arrows helping illuminate outside areas.

I'd love to see this expanded on with a few more tools for exploring into the darkness though, as it felt like once I started falling behind in 'light' it was difficult to find more wood again and catch back up.

Other games by @sleepystudios

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★3.48

★4.15