LudumData

Forest Hecate by Jordan

[raw]
made by Jordan for LD32 (COMPO)
Forest Hecate is a level based game where you must use collected and cooked flowers from objects such as trees to defeat enemies and win levels, along with avoiding various objects or entities that may come in your way. There are multiple different levels and bosses with different ways of winning, though I was not able to complete many levels due to time.

All levels are unlocked and accessible via the main menu by default, but you must win a level in order to fight it's boss, therefore giving an incentive to win while
allowing the user to easily skip levels.

I did a lot of difficulty adjusting, so hopefully the difficulty is not too hard or too easy. Difficulty varies a lot between levels/bosses.


Tools/languages used:

Eclipse / Java / Slick2D / LWJGL / Gimp / Debian
Windows http://jordanb84.itch.io/forest-hecate
OS/X http://jordanb84.itch.io/forest-hecate
Linux http://jordanb84.itch.io/forest-hecate
Source https://github.com/some1epic123/Forest-Hecate-LD32-
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=43421

Ratings

Coolness 91% 2
Overall 3.04 680
Audio 2.31 705
Fun 2.90 685
Graphics 2.38 929
Humor 2.60 619
Innovation 3.08 573
Mood 2.68 762
Theme 3.20 668

Feedback

w1n5t0n
19. Apr 2015 · 23:55 UTC
The game is really fun when you know the controls. I started the game without reading the description and i didn't understand anything, then i decided to read about the game and it became very fun. The amount of content in the game is impressive for a game made in 48 hours. Good luck in the competition!
sxmn
20. Apr 2015 · 02:53 UTC
rating 5 to appease the demons
Router
20. Apr 2015 · 03:14 UTC
Excellent game. Very original idea. Very stable for being made in 48 hours from scratch. Good job.
Psyho
20. Apr 2015 · 04:03 UTC
Maybe I was unlucky, but for me it randomly crashed during level selection and it bugged during the levels (negative karma).

Still, interesting idea and impressive amount of content.
pvwradtke
20. Apr 2015 · 04:05 UTC
OK, took me a while to get the hang of it. Would be nice to have the game taking the player by the hand at first, to make things easier. Then all hell could break lose ;).
🎤 Jordan
20. Apr 2015 · 04:06 UTC
If the negative karma occurs right after you've beat a level and before the next one has been started or you've been sent to the menu, that's normal and meant to happen as a fun effect. I believe level one has a bug where very rarely, the player will spawn on a tree that is not initiated yet, therefore causing a crash.

Thanks for rating.
ViliX64
20. Apr 2015 · 04:09 UTC
The game get repetetive after some time, but I had fun playing it.
ProjectX593
20. Apr 2015 · 04:50 UTC
I have no idea what is even happening. Amazing!
Garris
20. Apr 2015 · 05:06 UTC
I didn't really get it, but it seemed to be working pretty well. I beat a boss! And there were kittens. A net positive.
Sri Harsha Chilakapati
20. Apr 2015 · 05:17 UTC
Nice game with a good idea, but it's having issues with resizing the window: http://i.imgur.com/DE1nROX.png

I think you're not setting the viewport size on resize event of LWJGL display. It took me a few minutes to understand the game, and after that it's indeed fun to play.

Maybe you should describe the controls in the description.
hunttis
20. Apr 2015 · 06:51 UTC
Could beat the first level and the first boss, but in the second level there are at least fifty volcanoes (maybe it's bugging out somehow? Using OSX Yosemite) so it became really super difficult. Nice and weird idea, took a while to figure out what to do, and I still didn't get the boss fight. Why did my "ammo" go the direction it did :D

Good job on the boss ammo graphics though! :D
shrimpgunpistolshrimpslingergunnershrimps
20. Apr 2015 · 08:41 UTC
The mechanic that you use the flowers to control space but you still have to go collect new flowers works really well! It took me a moment to realize that you can walk through the trees, stones, etc.
The boss battles are quite funny as well
Well done!
LTPATS
20. Apr 2015 · 09:26 UTC
This was a bit tricky at first, but I really liked this once I got the hang of it! The art has a nice charm to it, too. Something about the overall aesthetic gave me Realm of the Mad God vibes. Great work!
Flygamer101
20. Apr 2015 · 12:32 UTC
Rather fun, with a good idea, but the beginning would be better if there was a period where enemies didn't spawn so I could actually see the words instead of defending myself. But still a great game if you see made from scratch.
DKoding
20. Apr 2015 · 15:38 UTC
Impressed by the amount of content. 10/10 best game ever, would play again. :-) Please rate my game at http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=16225
AlfalfaStudios
21. Apr 2015 · 01:52 UTC
Cool game! I loved dropping the aconite to get rid of the little demons. I started on the second level and it was a little hard to know what was going on as the demons were running into random aconite and going away. After playing the first level it made sense though.

Awesome job!
Lord bobyness
21. Apr 2015 · 02:47 UTC
Well, It really does need better instructions. First time I played it I was very confused (I ran out of aconite then died) I gave it another try after reading the readme that told me I could use WSAD to move(Although I really don't know why that didn't occur to me earlier)

It was enjoyable once I got it. I'm going to come back to this one tomorrow when I'm not tired and try it again.
🎤 Jordan
21. Apr 2015 · 03:10 UTC
Yes, the one of the most important things I've learned from this is that I should include a better set of instructions for the user (probably a tutorial level). Glad you enjoyed it.
cgmorton
21. Apr 2015 · 04:05 UTC
Was the art style supposed to descend into chaos for the boss fights? I thought at first the game had broken, but then it revealed I had defeated the boss so all was well.
🎤 Jordan
21. Apr 2015 · 04:42 UTC
If you mean the mass spawning of things like cats (as seen in the first boss), then yes, that was the intent; Probably could have been done better, though. Good job on defeating the boss.
Shugor
21. Apr 2015 · 23:52 UTC
This was a pretty challenging game, although part of that might have been the clarity of the controls. It would have been nice if the text explaining the game in the first stage was slower, or if it started at a lower level of difficulty to allow the player to adjust. The game was very creative, and kittens are an excellent choice of an unconventional weapon. The fact that there's no limit on how many you can shoot at once combined with the bosses' refusal to move too close to the edges of the screen means that boss fights are almost too easy, though. The game was still pretty fun overall~
DefectiveMelon
22. Apr 2015 · 00:54 UTC
Very hectic gameplay in this, which is a lot of fun. It took a little while to figure out what was killing me sometimes(lava :P) but eventually I worked out the mechanics and it was enjoyable.
michael.meadows
26. Apr 2015 · 20:49 UTC
Good game with good graphics and good mechanics. Enjoyed playing it!
jprogman
30. Apr 2015 · 02:39 UTC
Later levels with volcanoes started to make the game too difficult to complete as it is constantly adding lava and it just keeps piling on. There should be a way to prevent too much lava to appear in each level.

There is some fun and enjoyment though. Nice work.
🎤 Jordan
01. May 2015 · 04:29 UTC
Thanks, all of these reviews have been very helpful. I will certainly balance out the difficulty well and have better in game instructions for my next project.
rburema
03. May 2015 · 10:42 UTC
Just a nitpick, but going full-screen or otherwise changing the window-size gives some strange effects (not just the canvas not resizeing, but also, movement is affected (in the lower-right corner) when playing in a smaller window). [Maybe you already know this, but:] From my days as a Java-programmer I seem to remember that there where functions to disable window-resizeing ... hm ... yes, you can just call setResizable(false) if you're using a JFrame.