Ouroboros

by flatkiwi

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.81

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.52

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.81

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.83

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.35

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.96

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.15

Ouroboros is a tough-as-nails roguelike game, made for Ludum Dare 47.

You are inside of Ouroboros, the serpent of infinity. Cycles of life and death run much quicker here. However, you have a way to cheat the system.

You play as your enemy. Use your hook to latch onto and control the bodies of other creatures, to escape the natural decay imposed upon your current host. Make sure to get out of each chamber fast- or you won't live to see the next loop.

TEAM
Cakeprediction - Programming, game design
Squp - Art, game design, additional programming
PeaMix - Music
Landy - Sound effects, additional help

Tags: #2d, #arcade, #difficult, #gamemaker, #pixel art, #roguelike, #singleplayer

Genres: action

Comments18

Default Labs6 Oct 2020, 07:03

Absolutely amazing game! If you add more content I could totally see this being able to be turned into a fully fledged game. I really love the atmosphere and everything; it's all wonderfully executed :)

JoeDev6 Oct 2020, 12:04

Yet another Ouroboros! Great minds think alike for sure haha! I love what you've done with this game, it was brutally hard at first but once I managed to get the hang of switching between enemies smoothly and watching the 'decay' bar at the top properly, I did pretty well. Art and sound design are also fantastic! Would love to play a full release of this

ThanielPIN7 Oct 2020, 22:04

It's amazing! I loved the mechanic of switching between enemies, and the art freaking slaps.

shubart7 Oct 2020, 22:11

Nice game. Nice mood. But in my oppinion far to hard (i could just add a little progression). Nevertheless it's cool. Thank you for your game

jefvel7 Oct 2020, 22:28

This is a very cool platformer! The attacks feel really meaty and powerful, and the movement is quite good.

One minor thing is that you don't turn immediately when pressing left and right, and that you can't turn mid-air, which makes it harder to control.

The graphics and sounds are really well made and fits the mood too!

FallingFlatStudios7 Oct 2020, 22:33

Wow, this game is beautiful, and I love the switching mechanic favorite part of the game. Keep up the amazing work.

Shortbread7 Oct 2020, 22:43

Great game, super smooth movement and controls. I really like how the hook works, it would awesome to see other types of attacks with it. Art was also nice and combined with the soundtrack gave a really underground/labyrinth atmosphere to it. Well done :thumbsup:

No Grapes Games7 Oct 2020, 23:02

Great concept when it comes to the combat and the look. I really like the NES style. The little details in the art like when you jump is really nicely done. The game was not fun for me though. It's a bit too hard. Not a big fan of the level layouts or the super short run time, but that's just me. I'll just blame the theme for that. Nice entry.

macaroni.dev7 Oct 2020, 23:40

I loved the look & feel. The NES-style pixel art was engrossing and easy to parse. The mouse controls added a nice analog dimension, and the core mechanic was a nice challenge once I got the hang of it. I'd love to play a more fleshed out version!

I also see we weren't the only ones who went with an Ouroboros theme for this LD :joy: It was a nice touch to your game - I liked the serpent's mouth in particular.

Le Don9 Oct 2020, 12:03

This game looks great! But for me personally the time limit was just too short. I think you might give the player a little more leeway at the beginning.

Chris Hall11 Oct 2020, 05:45

This game is brutally hard but I found myself coming back for more. The concept is really awesome. I love how my character always feels very strong but incredibly fragile at the same time. It definitely seems stacked in favor of the walking characters right now. With more content I could see myself spending a lot of time with this game. Great job!

Oroshibu13 Oct 2020, 02:08

Not gonna lie sometimes it is really hard to see from what I died, but this a great game overall! love the combat feeling, the weapon is really cool and the sounds when you hit enemies is satisfying!

oneiromancer16 Oct 2020, 09:16

It's an amazingly looking game and the swiching mechanics is quite interesting!

But from the design perspective, there are some problems. Your mechanics kinda work against each other. You need to traverse the room quickly, otherwise you lose a heart. But you also need to clear a room, and since enemies die in at least 2 hits, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to clear a room and not lose a heart.

So, yeah, if you could actually run through rooms quickly, this game would be loads more fun!

FlatKiwiauthor18 Oct 2020, 16:52

Re: oneironmancer's feedback- The point of the decay mechanic is to make sure you don't just run through a room. The idea behind that was to keep the player on their toes and not just stay in one host body all the time. Thanks for the compliments on the art though, much appreciated :)

Trexxak19 Oct 2020, 23:46

Tough as nails, this game is. But it's also incredibly polished in the sense that the vision feels completed. Everything works together nicely and makes the narrative and gameplay believable! Also that scorpiontail!!

What a nice surprise!

mlkvr23 Oct 2020, 15:18

Stylized graphics + solid gameplay + polished as much as poland = ouroboros

hgcummings24 Oct 2020, 11:37

Brilliant art style and really polished presentation. The audio and mood were great too, and the mechanics worked well. It was really brutal to play, but that seems right for this kind of game. I did find the controls slightly frustrating (the attack just being due left/right based on your character's facing, but the possession being unidirectional, was quite confusing and tricky to get the hang of). Being able to possess enemies with different abilities was very effective.

JUSTCAMH24 Oct 2020, 14:29

Hey, I played your game on stream, by recommendation! And I'm glad it got recommended, it was a ton of fun! Here's the vod if you'd like to see what happened, your game is second. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/780254814