Bard! by StrayByte

[raw]
made by StrayByte for LD32 (JAM)
Bard is an unfinished game. I feel like uploading it anyway because it has a basic gameplay and feel about what it should be.

The game revolves around Bard, being the guy with the guitar, that fights the evil awoken musical instruments and radios that threathen the world with noise.

I could not manage to put in audio, most of animations are unpolished. The game feels really wrecked and i'm sorry to deliver such poor quality, even if this is my first Dare and my first ever "completed" game. Not making any other excuses, enjoy the game!

It's been a fun challenge and i grew a lot. I hope to get your reviews to grow more and more.

Controls:
Arrow keys to move

A to charge up the heap
S to shoot
D to jump
F to shield from bolts

Holding A and pressing D jumps higher
Holding A and holding F charges up a burst of awesomeness

Sprites, pixel art and coding by me, @StrayByte
Static Art and Menus by my wife, @WestBrightStar

Cheers

Ratings

Coolness 69% 3
Overall(Jam) 2.89 784
Fun(Jam) 2.62 810
Graphics(Jam) 2.97 662
Humor(Jam) 2.56 658
Innovation(Jam) 2.62 784
Mood(Jam) 2.63 802
Theme(Jam) 3.44 452

Feedback

mandolin
21. Apr 2015 路 03:49 UTC
Your parallax-scrolling moves faster than your foreground, completely shattering the illusion of depth that parallaxing is supposed to do.

Also there's no indication that you shouldn't leave the screen to the right to continue the game, but when you do you can't get back on and the game is now broken. A simple solid object should fix that.

You have the start of a game. Develop it further.
Sublustris
22. Apr 2015 路 10:49 UTC
Nice art!
binarycoder
22. Apr 2015 路 17:30 UTC
Really like the backgrounds, looked like it was shaping up to something interesting!
馃帳 StrayByte
22. Apr 2015 路 18:41 UTC
@binarycoder: We fell short on the programming, came out a bit shoddy :<
Bashabookoos
22. Apr 2015 路 19:17 UTC
Great job! That's a lot of work you put into this. Cool character design, and I love the guitar solo magic attack! It does feel like a missed opportunity to have a game about fighting with musical notes and not having any sound. Also the parallax is a bit jarring. I would also recommend keeping the dead bodies of enemies around, it gives a sense of progression and "badassery". A couple bugs to note: At one point the enemies stopped showing up, and my character wouldn't stop moving to the left. But like I said, a wonderfully themed game and great visual designs. Keep it up!
careless
22. Apr 2015 路 20:05 UTC
Really liked the idea maybe you just needed some more time to polish up the game play.

Loved the idea of a guitar as a weapon and would really like to see you continue this.

I too went too far right and had to restart the game. I had a play for a while and it was fun! Thanks
MonoS
22. Apr 2015 路 22:04 UTC
As the others said the parallax is very odd, also the controls are a bit buggy... well maybe all the game is a bit buggy but i had some fun trying to discover all the bug.

Voted 5 for mood because this https://twitter.com/StrayByte/status/590965725998776322
[If a non italian speaker what to know, here a rough translation: It was exiting, i shouted code while my wife shouted illustration. It was pure magic]
Squidtank
23. Apr 2015 路 19:41 UTC
Great work! I like the idea and I thought Bard's animation was pretty cool. I do think audio is a big component to this so I would have liked to see that in the game.
novadream
23. Apr 2015 路 19:50 UTC
Really fun graphics! :D Though would've loved to hear the audio that you were going to use (as it seems to be a music themed game).
Don't worry about running out of time, we uploaded an unfinished game as well. :P
ermrk
23. Apr 2015 路 20:02 UTC
Game has nice smooth controls. Background is moving too fast, it is probably most problematic thing on this game. Keep working on it.
馃帳 StrayByte
23. Apr 2015 路 20:59 UTC
Thanks for all the great feedback! We're working into improving the game as we want to actually make a full fledged, sellable game. Thanks!
Noah Ratcliff
23. Apr 2015 路 22:17 UTC
Cool idea and really unique art style! Great use of the theme, as well.

It seems like I was taking damage from bullets below me when I was jumping while pressing A, but I didn't investigate it much further, as I was busy shooting up robits!
Red_Fan games
23. Apr 2015 路 22:58 UTC
Background art was better than the foreground art.... Not bad overall tho PS MAKE A LINUX VERSION!!!
BIZM
24. Apr 2015 路 18:16 UTC
Great idea! Fun art style and good game mechanic! Would love to play this game with some bad ass sounds :D
reiknight
24. Apr 2015 路 19:20 UTC
I like the art style!! Maybe, the game is too easy, at least at the beginning!
Pietro Ferrantelli
24. Apr 2015 路 21:24 UTC
Really nice entry for an "unfinished" one. I like mechanics, it has potential :D
RobotHoboDanceParty
25. Apr 2015 路 09:54 UTC
For what you have so far, this is pretty darn cool even without the audio. Please keep working on this, its a great idea! Good work!!

Also I do owe you thanks for testing my game before the jam ended, you helped me lots! :D
馃帳 StrayByte
25. Apr 2015 路 14:54 UTC
Hah You're welcome Robot :p
Thanks for all the feedbacks!
nopogo
29. Apr 2015 路 08:07 UTC
Dig the stick figure design ^^
NoWandStudios
03. May 2015 路 16:17 UTC
Not bad, but it's kinda awkward jump with D when you have Up Arrow Key free.