Dreadzone
This game is from ldjam.com, which is currently unavailable.
You can try viewing the original page on Web Archive (may not load correctly).
You can try viewing the original page on Web Archive (may not load correctly).
You were called for a cleanup of tiny creatures in the castle walls. Are you up to the task?
Walk into arena and survive! Collect health bonuses and more guns in order to defend against more and more aggressive tiny creatures!
Web version is available. I spent a non-significant amount of Sunday trying to find every possible way how to optimise the game for web and sacrificed a very big chunk of plans, but no matter what I tried, I didn't get rid of the issue where after around 3 or 4 minutes of playing in areana, all 3D objects visually disappear before Compo, so, Compo web version contains this issue (not local builds, though).
On Monday, with a clear head, I took a look at the project and made some massive optimalisation, which made the web version work properly. If you can forgive post-compo performance fix, which didn't touch gameplay one bit, feel free to play it here:
* https://dzejpi.itch.io/dreadzone
If you feel strongly Compo, then play here:
* https://dzejpi.itch.io/dreadzone-strict-compo
Either way, you can also download local builds - those worked fine the whole time.
* WSAD: Move like in all 3D first person games.
* Left click: Interaction with items.
* Middle mouse button scroll: circle between weapons.
* 1-5: Switching between weapons.
* Escape: Toggle pause menu. Focus on HTML5 on Itchio is not perfect, so if you’re playing HTML5 version, press Esc twice and click on the Continue button with your mouse to focus it back properly.
* Shift (hold): Sprint.
* Space: Jump.
* Game engine: Godot 4.3.
* Aseprite
* Blender
* Ableton Live 11 Standard
* Audacity
This is the first time I used Godot 4+ for the game jam, I always used 3.X before due to well working web exporters. This project went amazing all the way to the first web export, which I did way too late. Would there be no web issues, this game would be much bigger - I had 4 different arenas with dynamic doors and gameplay, and planned an endless mode at the end.
The web export was supposed to be a formality, like in all of my previous Godot exports. No such luck here.
Once I exported this to web, then I ran into the first issue - I couldn't see any textures on objects in the main menu, I saw only white. This got thankfully resolved by the different compression method.
I thought this would resolve my trouble, but once I started the new game, I didn't see any objects in game, only skybox and 2D elements. I figured out that this is due to too many nodes.
In the end, I removed 3 out of 4 arenas, which made the objects appears. However, all objects disappeared after like 2 minutes of playing again. So, I implemented the enemy limit so that spawners do not spawn over the certain number creatures in total, I optimised ground and walls massively, which got the gameplay to like 3-4 minutes, but then I hit the wall.
I am kinda disappointed, because this could have been much bigger and better game. Would there be no problems with web platform, this could have been my best entry, I would say.
That said, despite everything, I think this game is still pretty fun. I am always web-first, but in this case, I learned my lesson and after this experience, I will be more mindful of optimisation on web.
How to play
Walk into arena and survive! Collect health bonuses and more guns in order to defend against more and more aggressive tiny creatures!
Web version is available. I spent a non-significant amount of Sunday trying to find every possible way how to optimise the game for web and sacrificed a very big chunk of plans, but no matter what I tried, I didn't get rid of the issue where after around 3 or 4 minutes of playing in areana, all 3D objects visually disappear before Compo, so, Compo web version contains this issue (not local builds, though).
On Monday, with a clear head, I took a look at the project and made some massive optimalisation, which made the web version work properly. If you can forgive post-compo performance fix, which didn't touch gameplay one bit, feel free to play it here:
* https://dzejpi.itch.io/dreadzone
If you feel strongly Compo, then play here:
* https://dzejpi.itch.io/dreadzone-strict-compo
Either way, you can also download local builds - those worked fine the whole time.
Controls
* WSAD: Move like in all 3D first person games.
* Left click: Interaction with items.
* Middle mouse button scroll: circle between weapons.
* 1-5: Switching between weapons.
* Escape: Toggle pause menu. Focus on HTML5 on Itchio is not perfect, so if you’re playing HTML5 version, press Esc twice and click on the Continue button with your mouse to focus it back properly.
* Shift (hold): Sprint.
* Space: Jump.
Tools used
* Game engine: Godot 4.3.
* Aseprite
* Blender
* Ableton Live 11 Standard
* Audacity
Commentary
This is the first time I used Godot 4+ for the game jam, I always used 3.X before due to well working web exporters. This project went amazing all the way to the first web export, which I did way too late. Would there be no web issues, this game would be much bigger - I had 4 different arenas with dynamic doors and gameplay, and planned an endless mode at the end.
The web export was supposed to be a formality, like in all of my previous Godot exports. No such luck here.
Once I exported this to web, then I ran into the first issue - I couldn't see any textures on objects in the main menu, I saw only white. This got thankfully resolved by the different compression method.
I thought this would resolve my trouble, but once I started the new game, I didn't see any objects in game, only skybox and 2D elements. I figured out that this is due to too many nodes.
In the end, I removed 3 out of 4 arenas, which made the objects appears. However, all objects disappeared after like 2 minutes of playing again. So, I implemented the enemy limit so that spawners do not spawn over the certain number creatures in total, I optimised ground and walls massively, which got the gameplay to like 3-4 minutes, but then I hit the wall.
I am kinda disappointed, because this could have been much bigger and better game. Would there be no problems with web platform, this could have been my best entry, I would say.
That said, despite everything, I think this game is still pretty fun. I am always web-first, but in this case, I learned my lesson and after this experience, I will be more mindful of optimisation on web.