The Hill I Die On

by devvex

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.39

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.04

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.04

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.62

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.02

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.31

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.56

This is my third Ludum Dare as a solo hobby game developer :v:

Story: You play as the samurai "Hiro". After a long war, he finds himself alone on a hill surrounded by enemies. His death is inevitable, but he won't go easy...

Controls:
Click to the left or right of the Samurai to attack in that direction
Swipe to launch a projectile in that direction

Didn't have enough time to implement the energy meter (Swipe should take more effort/energy)... so you can go nuts killing blobs :) (also didn't have time to add more enemies lol).

If you want to see how this game was made (and other game/web development videos) subscribe to me on YouTube :D https://www.youtube.com/c/jcode3

I uploaded a video with a timelapse on the making of this game that contains the 12-14 hours I spent compressed into a few minutes. You can watch that here :D -> https://youtu.be/cN2lIl9jyAU

Tags: #2d, #3d, #casual, #pixel art

Genres: fighting, survival

Comments25

mlho74 Apr 2022, 22:40

That is a really nice entry, the art is great, the idea too, great job.

NoniGirl4 Apr 2022, 23:31

Nice entry! I really like the graphics :) So simple yet beautiful.

ljol35 Apr 2022, 04:46

art, sound, and simplistic controls are all good, but I didn't feel like I was ever going to actually die on that hill after all.

Monado5 Apr 2022, 04:51

Really liked the presentation of the whole game! Really gave it a nice feel that fit the setting the game set up pretty nicely. Asides from it being pretty easy to kill enemies with the swipe, the game is pretty nice and the difficulty increases nicely to boot!

T C5 Apr 2022, 05:00

Nice work! I like the art and the shadows.

arqitech5 Apr 2022, 22:00

Nice art!
I it would be good if it got harder faster, since the game is a bit repetitive.

PureImprov6 Apr 2022, 02:13

I'm biased towards a historical Japanese themed game, and I enjoyed it! Very nice visuals and easy to pick up the controls (:

DevVexauthor6 Apr 2022, 20:26

@mlho7 @nonigirl @ljol3 @monado @t-c @arqitech @pureimprov

Thanks for the comments everyone! appreciate the feedback

JHax6 Apr 2022, 20:46

There's a great like sombre "delaying the inevitable" vibe to the whole thing, it's really well put together. The 2.5D graphics letting you have the crisp pixel art casting shadows is a cool look too. I appreciate you were a bit pushed for time, but if you do end up coming back to it, I'd love to see how this looked if the light source gradually moved over time and you could really see the shadows elongating and moving (it's been a while since I've worked in Unity but you might be able to do some shader magic to get some nice dusky colours on the pixel art too).

Very effective at creating a mood and the pixel art is top notch!

nullval6 Apr 2022, 21:43

Great concept, though personally, I prefer to die on a hill about which captain is better Picard or Kirk :P

The theme is used really well here, the music and sound is great, sets the mood perfectly.
I like how the slashing/sword animation can be chained together.

I can see on your itch.io page that you already know the range attack spam problem and I agree that an energy meter would limit it. Also something fun to consider is leaving blood/entrails/enemy remains on the ground as a "counter" instead of just a number :)

Also nice to see someone going for a touch friendly control scheme, this could totally work on a smartphone/tablet :D

mibehu6 Apr 2022, 21:44

I found pretty neat tactic to destroy those enemy waves easily. Minimalist but beautiful little game.

Renge6 Apr 2022, 21:51

This has great potential, but at the moment it seems more like a pixel art showcase than anything else, since gameplay isn't really there yet. I think putting the ranged attack on a long cooldown would really do this game good, since that ability is very OP and can be used non-stop to clear any wave. I'm a huge fan of your pixel art though, and the sword swipe animation is really smooth!

Magic_mike6 Apr 2022, 21:54

I like the concept a lot and the art is really good! Of course the problem is you can easily spam swipes, but you are aware of that, great entry!

Gravityflip6 Apr 2022, 21:55

Interesting take on the theme! It is minimalistic, but it does what it wants to do well! Good job!

Jeff Kerman6 Apr 2022, 22:22

This game fits its style perfectly. The glow on the ranged attack is a great touch.

LDJam user 2807557 Apr 2022, 03:27

Love the art and animation on the attack and the swipe!

Andreia7 Apr 2022, 03:38

I really liked the animation of the hair reacting to the wind. I think you got the mood quite right. And I also enjoyed the name of the game and how you took that concept into reality. The timelapse was cool too watch too. Great work!

Paroxysmal7 Apr 2022, 16:39

Great entry.

Slecornu12 Apr 2022, 21:36

I spent so long playing this game I forgot I almost forgot to review it, it's very addictive. Good stuff!

Daniel MacCormick14 Apr 2022, 00:30

Really well done!

This is super polished! The animations, the sound effects, the little screen shake - it all makes the game feel really good to play!

I do think you should make the projectile attack have a cooldown or something like that - it is really easy to fire quickly. I tested and I was able to make it to level 10 easily without even seeing a single enemy by just firing projectiles constantly. I could have gone longer but didn't want to ruin the experience for myself as melee'ing is really satisfying!

As a side note, I love the title! Overall, great submission. It's perfect for a game jam!

DevVexauthor14 Apr 2022, 02:55

@jhax @nullval @mibehu @renge @magic-mike @gravityflip @jeff-kerman @daniel-username @andreia @paroxysmal @slecornu @daniel-maccormick

Thank you everyone for playing my game, and your feedback :pray:

LDJam user 25082515 Apr 2022, 23:34

Looks so nice, love the pixel shadows! The one-two melee combo looks and feels great as well, I tried to use the swipe attack only a little due to your comment so I got some challenge out of it. (also incidentally saw your YouTube channel and a fix for the URP shadow issue that has been haunting me so thanks for that :D)

Paul Nadan17 Apr 2022, 04:48

Great title, and the opening zoom sequence combined with the music was epic! Overall great audio, and really nice pixel art animation. Definitely just needs a little more time to develop the gameplay, e.g. giving more attack options when you swipe in different directions, and some variety of enemies. Great work!

Prismapunch20 Apr 2022, 03:34

Love the idea and tone, The Hill I Die On is such a cool concept. Also really liked the sprite work for the samurai, would have liked to see some more enemy variety.

gamebuilder21 Apr 2022, 01:49

A fun game. Nice graphics; I just wish the enemies were more fleshed out. Some details like trees and plant life would add a lot too. Also, it was very easy to make progress by constantly swiping in both directions. So, I think the difficulty level should be increased. But the music is great, as is the animation.

Other games by @devvex

★3.50