Nightfall by deadbodyoutline

[raw]
made by deadbodyoutline for LD32 (JAM)
Talgash is a planet illuminated all the time, on every point of its surface. People are happy living there. But it changed when Doctor Sheerin discovered an amazing (and fearsome) thing: The Darkness.

Created inside a powerful reactor, he can fire shots of darkness at things, creating a "dark wrapper" when in contact with organic material. His gun can shot up to 10 "bullets", but recharges according Sheerin's proximity to the reactor.

While his invention is incredible (he doesn't know what to do with it yet), not all people like it. They are afraid of the possibility of existence of "The Darkness", and, with an angry feeling, want to destroy the doctor's darkness reactor.

So, Sheerin must stop anyone from coming close to its invention. At any cost.

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Misc:
- Move with AWSD, shoot with mouse left click;
- Loosely based on Isaac Asimov short story Nightfall;
- This game uses OpenGameArt:
- Sci-Fi Interior Tiles: http://opengameart.org/content/sci-fi-interior-tiles
- Victims and Villagers: http://opengameart.org/content/victims-and-villagers
- I can't finish the game the way I want. There are no intro scene, no Game Over screen, no progress update (there is logic to do it already, just don't show yet). Enemies should appear more frequently after some time, but not implemented yet;
- I will finish the game, but now I prefer to let it the way I submitted and play other entries. Will work on it again after the judging ;)

Link to the post-mortem: http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/05/03/nightfall-a-post-mortem-story/

Thank you all!

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Releases
- Windows
Known bug: Character isn't moving and shooting at same time (on linux it is working -- some machines this bug doesn't happen)

- OS/X
Unzip the zip file and open from terminal:
./ld32
Clicking on the file to open isn't working, will fix it only on the final version of the game. Sorry.

- Linux
The linux package is experimental and x86_64 only. I recommend getting the source and doing the follow (requires SFML 2.2 and Thor installed):
./scripts/build-dependencies
mkdir build; cd build
cmake ..; make; cd src/
./ld32

Of course, you can test the package and tell me any errors you got :)

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Updates:
- Adding Windows build (version 8.1 | move/shoot at same time not working, but only happens on some machines ¯\_(ツ)_/¯);
- Adding MacOS X build (version 10.10.3 | quite slow);
- Updating MacOS X build (must open ld32 from terminal);
- Adding experimental linux build (x86_64 only, built on my devel machine, probably will not work on yours right now);
- Adding post-mortem link;
> Source code living on github now!

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TODO:
- implement the original ideas for the game!

Ratings

Coolness 84% 2
Overall(Jam) 2.54 995
Fun(Jam) 2.37 942
Humor(Jam) 2.23 815
Innovation(Jam) 2.02 1002
Mood(Jam) 2.33 920
Theme(Jam) 2.75 863

Feedback

Horsed
22. Apr 2015 · 07:00 UTC
It kinda had some fun with that, although I found it too easy, as the enemies kept spawning in just 3 spots. And it seems to be going forever. At least I couldn't find any indication of progress. Bullet effects and sprite animations would immediately add more feel to the game.
🎤 deadbodyoutline
23. Apr 2015 · 14:54 UTC
Thank you @Horsed, had no time to proper finish the game, but will work on it after the judging ;)
kabutakogames
24. Apr 2015 · 03:57 UTC
I love the Asimov reference ;) nice work
Hambone
24. Apr 2015 · 04:03 UTC
Man those guys move fast! Nice!
OnlySlightly
24. Apr 2015 · 04:16 UTC
I liked the concept and how you used the tiles all together. You definitely captured a sci fi vibe!
emmelineprufrock
24. Apr 2015 · 04:16 UTC
I like the concept of fighting with darkness.
pi_pi3
24. Apr 2015 · 04:26 UTC
This game could be fun if the level design was better. It's possible to stand in one spot and just shoot at the incoming enemies. Look for "The art of Screenshake" on Youtube. It has a lot of advices for action games.
Chippington
24. Apr 2015 · 05:41 UTC
You know, it's one of the first games i've been reviewing that i genuinely liked. The only thing that i didn't really like though was that it would crash sometimes for no apparent reason, but that's not actually reviewing the game, so let's move on.
Basically, i was attracted by the fact it has some resource managing going on, like a manual tower defense game, that feels more satisfying to play because you're the one shooting the enemies. Not sure if you had this on mind or it's already implemented in the game, but i think the game would be better if you got bullets faster if you don't shoot for a while. If you did implement it you should add a value that displays how quickly you're recharging 'darkness'. Pickups would also be a plus!.
Also, not really something negative but i played the game for a while and i think there was some point that enemies came so often you had to let in at least one enemy -happened to me at least 2 times-. I kinda felt really sad that there was no score because i'd be playing this to get the top score on my devteam lol. Good job, mate!
Frenchie
25. Apr 2015 · 06:59 UTC
An easy change that would make this game better would be to make the bullets bigger. Since they were so small I sometimes didn't know if I was just out of ammo or if I missed.

Nice job :) Try to make it more complete next time!
Franklin's Ghost
25. Apr 2015 · 09:37 UTC
Liked the concept behind the game just needs to progress in difficulty and it would feel more complete.
xtty
26. Apr 2015 · 20:33 UTC
It's a fun game and I liked your use of the tiles. However, it's a bit too easy and gets boring quick, as there is no progress whatsoever.

The bullets were also quite hard to see. A better animation for the bullets and some increase in difficulty as the game goes on would take you a long way, as would some different levels.

On the positive side, the fast-moving enemies and the inherent resource management in having to choose a position from which to take the enemies down make for a fun concept :)
Dynad
26. Apr 2015 · 21:20 UTC
Graphics are great, need bigger bullets tho! Overall a solid game. ;)
🎤 deadbodyoutline
26. Apr 2015 · 21:37 UTC
Thanks all for the valuable comments! I decided to start working on my post-ld this week yet, based on all comments (was waiting until the end of the judging.

Thank you again!
rogberth
27. Apr 2015 · 17:08 UTC
I like the bullet regen concept. Hope to see it more developed after the judging! And sorry about making you drink beer haha
rzfmzn
28. Apr 2015 · 12:22 UTC
Lol, the proxy here tag your page as porn hahahaha :P
Will try it at night :D
jprogman
29. Apr 2015 · 01:05 UTC
It's a good start. The game is playable at this point and you should be happy that you managed to do that. I bet you have many ideas to put into it once you make time for it. Good luck on that!

Even if you didn't do them, I still like the graphics.
JDAivaliotis
04. May 2015 · 02:05 UTC
A cool idea, hope you can develop it much further!
alyphen
04. May 2015 · 02:24 UTC
It's an interesting idea, but I wouldn't say it's too well executed. It runs faster than it feels it should and collisions are all over the place. It needs music, sound effects, and a touch-up on the graphics, a general slow down and some physics improvements. With some work, this could be pretty fun.
filipe.silva
04. May 2015 · 02:43 UTC
very cool, fun and well developed. Congratulations
Omiya Games
06. May 2015 · 01:52 UTC
I thought this was pretty well-balanced, with the shooting feeling fair and one-the-spot; movement feeling fast enough to cover the area; and the bullet-respawn balanced enough to feel fair, yet occasionally putting me on the spot. I think it's a solid first-effort, and look forward to see more from you!
Druid
08. May 2015 · 14:59 UTC
Wow, i am big fan of Asimov so.. I really loved this entry! Gameplay was pretty much fun!
duck
08. May 2015 · 21:15 UTC
Fun idea, would like to play it again when it's finished!
DrPrettyPatty
09. May 2015 · 15:08 UTC
I like the idea of using darkness as a weapon! I agree with several other commenters, it's pretty easy to just stand to the bottom-right of the reactor and pick off enemies from all 3 spawn points. Great job though, especially using SFML! BTW I just read your postmortem; if you figure out how to compile with emscripten I'd be really interested in hearing how you did it (I have an old SFML project that I want to port to HTML5, but haven't had the time to really look into it)! Anyway, great job and I hope you keep doing LD jams!
spindizzyMR
11. May 2015 · 17:56 UTC
I like it, just wished it was harder.
Mossy Frog
12. May 2015 · 00:40 UTC
Nice reference in there lol. the bullets were very small, I think they should have been a little bigger. Nice entry :D
🎤 deadbodyoutline
14. May 2015 · 03:32 UTC
Thanks you all guys! I am working on the post version now; will update this page (and make a post) when having new builds.

See ya!