Escave! by Simon@LD

[raw]
made by Simon@LD for LD29 (JAM)
Oops, you fell in a hole and ended up in cave! Making matters worse: it's a cave filled with evil creatures that will try to kill you... Thank god you're a wizard! You can fight the creatures off with your magical fireballs! However, eventually you'd like to get out of this darn cave... you can build a magical tower to get to the hole you fell through. The evil creatures wouldn't like to see their lunch leaving, so some of them will attack your tower if it isn't strong enough. Build your tower high enough in order to escape the cave!

Created by first time LD participants:
- Pieterjan Bartels (s0217391)
- Simon Chuptys (Simon@LD)
- Jeroen De Coninck (Yarr)
- Stijn De Haes (stijndehaes)

WASD/arrows to move, hold leftmousebutton to cast magic projectiles.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.60 131
Audio(Jam) 2.98 410
Fun(Jam) 3.55 95
Graphics(Jam) 3.14 471
Humor(Jam) 2.18 523
Innovation(Jam) 3.25 268
Mood(Jam) 3.09 350
Theme(Jam) 3.16 370

Feedback

Foofur
28. Apr 2014 · 18:36 UTC
Jeej, nederland! :D

The idea with the towers is quite innovative. Also liked the menu with the shop thingy, makes the whole game a lot more interesting. However I think the graphics could have been better. Would like to see you guys upload a post-compo version of this. Good job
Keehan12
29. Apr 2014 · 07:42 UTC
could do with some tweaking of art but was a nice little idea! needs polishing
rogberth
29. Apr 2014 · 07:55 UTC
Good game, I actually played a long time. Challenging and difficult. The graphics were ok, 3D yet maybe the enemies where too simple. Music was nice. Good job, one of the best games I tried so far.
mir007
29. Apr 2014 · 07:59 UTC
I think this is a pretty innovative idea. Good on you!
ruerob
29. Apr 2014 · 08:01 UTC
That was a really great game. It was a lot of fun playing through the waves and hoping to survive with low energy. Maybe the prices for the tower elements could have been a little different.
chase
29. Apr 2014 · 08:13 UTC
That was actually quite fun, I spent a good amount of time destroying the evil creatures.
BuKaneerz
29. Apr 2014 · 08:38 UTC
Nice job ! Cool music
Need polishing, i like the explosion of cube when you hit something (:
dsoft20
29. Apr 2014 · 08:45 UTC
Nice game, I really love that textureless lowpoly graphics :D
stephan_h
29. Apr 2014 · 08:45 UTC
Haha, that music. Great!
Good idea and execution.
Some more polish would go a long way here, I think. (GUI skin, info or winning screen after survival of a wave, display of enemies alive, perhaps visual indicator of whereabouts of the enemies...)
But the game is already fun as it is.
pereubu
29. Apr 2014 · 09:16 UTC
Solid entry, the concept is neat :D
It may lacks of some juicy effects but it was really cool to play :D
SoupWithBits
29. Apr 2014 · 10:47 UTC
So different! With some juice, I would buy it!
SirJson
29. Apr 2014 · 13:40 UTC
Cool game!
sam101
29. Apr 2014 · 13:44 UTC
Nice game, the idea with the towers is nice, the art is good without being exceptional. Good job !
Blokatt
29. Apr 2014 · 13:49 UTC
MY GOD, this is one the best LD games I've played so far.
I hope you guys are proud of yourselves, because this is seriously awesome.
Lee1121
29. Apr 2014 · 13:52 UTC
This was fun :).
I would've loved a minimap though, I got backstabbed way too often ;).
Exergy
29. Apr 2014 · 13:54 UTC
I really enjoyed playing this!
GamerTaters
29. Apr 2014 · 13:57 UTC
I really liked this game. Found myself playing it for a while. I'd keep working on this one if you feel so inclined. It's definitely fun!
Mekuri
29. Apr 2014 · 21:12 UTC
I loved this game. I beat it on my 2nd try, after understanding the different "monsters" better. I'm a sucker for TD type games, but this one was very innovative! Love it all the way. You should consider developing this game further, but by adding new mobs, tower pieces and even spells! Very great game!! Some sound effects would definitely add to the game as well!
recursor
29. Apr 2014 · 21:24 UTC
I like upgrade games and this one was pretty fun. It got hectic fairly quickly, and I wanted to climb up into the tower to get away from those little nasties. Alas, I had to fight them from the ground. Nice job.
MyrddinsOwl
30. Apr 2014 · 00:10 UTC
Hey guys! This was fun! I don't think I've played a tower d game with first person mode. Super fun and I'd love to see it developed. I had a little trouble with the aiming sensitivity, but I'm also a console guy and bad with mouse keyboard in the first place. The enemies reminded me of SNES starfox bosses. This is a good thing. Well done!
TeamPurpleDolphins
30. Apr 2014 · 01:01 UTC
Fun game. Was there really any point to buying the "Sturdy" tower section? I got through just fine with only arrows and cannons. Those buzz-saw enemies packed a punch, I constantly found myself checking over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't going to get surrounded by them.
eskivor
30. Apr 2014 · 01:37 UTC
Nice, but I don't like the music.
SuperMsp10
30. Apr 2014 · 02:01 UTC
wow lots of fun might need a little bit of balancing but lots of fun
MarsBar
30. Apr 2014 · 05:25 UTC
Nice game, I really enjoyed the visuals and audio. was a lot of fun and addicting as heck :) Great tower defence idea!
hamster_mk_4
30. Apr 2014 · 05:46 UTC
The blender guys were a bit too powerful for too little reward. Also once the tower got high enough the projectiles were almost ineffective.
akymos
30. Apr 2014 · 08:03 UTC
With a little graphic improvement would have been a great game...pretty interesting gameplay!! Good job...
CruelMotivator
30. Apr 2014 · 09:19 UTC
nice!
x1212
30. Apr 2014 · 09:51 UTC
Wow ... those small ones were the most painfull ones!
Nice Game!
snooze82
30. Apr 2014 · 10:01 UTC
neat idea - tower defense meets ego shooter :D
cptalbertwesker
30. Apr 2014 · 12:32 UTC
I love the idea, it's totally soul crushing when you lose a tower piece after building it up so high!

Love the music too :D
TeamInCharge
30. Apr 2014 · 14:33 UTC
Supervet spel! :)

Music reminds me of the old dos game Ascendancy. Game constantly makes you paranoid... are there chainsaw octagons chasing me? aaaaaah!

Was fun, thx :)
BuriTeam
30. Apr 2014 · 14:44 UTC
Really, really fun!
tacs
30. Apr 2014 · 16:28 UTC
I like the idea. After my first game I did hit a bug that let me build for free and so win in 0 turns. Still, very nice!
InfectionTeam
30. Apr 2014 · 19:18 UTC
The art style of the cavern or whatever you want to call it rather appeals to me! I wasn't so keen on the appearance of the tower or the enemies though (except for the one with the spinning blade in his centre, that dude was menacing!) Gameplay could use some spice, but it's pretty enjoyable already as it is!
Brick
30. Apr 2014 · 19:59 UTC
I really liked this game, with better graphics and a few tweaks to the mechanics then this could certainly go beyond Ludum Dare.
Garrett Hoofman
30. Apr 2014 · 21:12 UTC
Really liked this, it was really fun. Definitely could go further yet with polish. Fun take on a tower defense game.
Ragzouken
30. Apr 2014 · 21:47 UTC
really liked the music, and the cool feeling of progression from building the tower. very CUBE: DEFENDER OF THE POLYVERSE feel, love it
terraco
30. Apr 2014 · 23:04 UTC
Nice cave game.
blockbot
01. May 2014 · 00:31 UTC
An fps tower defense is kind of genius. This reminded me of the early days of 3d games, nice work!
Penguincat
01. May 2014 · 03:02 UTC
Fun game! I didn't see a benefit in buying the weaponless tower segment, but if the segments were different prices that could make for an interesting compromise between wanting to build the tower a.s.a.p. versus waiting until you could buy more helpful (and expensive) segments. As it is, though, there's still an interesting choice to make between arrows/cannons each time, and the dynamics change nicely once larger waves start showing up. Nice work! :)
vladimirdlc
01. May 2014 · 03:45 UTC
Cool game! I enjoyed this thoroughly.
It would had been a nice touch some music effects, I liked the idea of overlapping 'towers', the graphics were functional, but can be improved, specially the GUI.
After all, pretty solid and fun entry.
angelk
01. May 2014 · 07:35 UTC
I like this! It's like dungeon defenders. I like the simplicity of building a single tower with all defenses in the middle. Graphics are cool, although the enemies stand out a bit as not fitting in with the resot of the style (though they're good enemy models! just different from the environment). Very nice work.
timtipgames
01. May 2014 · 12:01 UTC
The cave setting created a nice mood and I enjoyed the game mechanics very much. Reminds me of sanctum which is a game I also dig. The overall graphicstyle is nice and the music suits well. Good job!
Xaychru04
01. May 2014 · 15:06 UTC
Yay, I beat the game! But those spiky things killed me at wave 19... I really enjoyed the game, it kept me playing for like half an hour! Nice visuals, the changing music was cool, and I liked the arena/tower-tower-defense gameplay. Solid entry! :)
Techblogogy
01. May 2014 · 17:29 UTC
Really nice game
ezolotko
03. May 2014 · 12:51 UTC
This is a fun game. I like how you added FPS aspect to tower defense.
MintArcade
04. May 2014 · 08:49 UTC
Great game. Nice visuals. Very good progression difficulty.
Oddly Shaped Pixels
04. May 2014 · 14:29 UTC
Nice idea and ambiance but I think you should rethink the GUI, to condusing. And I dont know if its only my case, but you should lower mouse sensitivity.
Solid entry anyhow!
pinkmonkeyhead
04. May 2014 · 18:03 UTC
I really like the tower idea and mechanics but i think the game was too easy
DonovanWu
06. May 2014 · 18:14 UTC
Great game!
Zerkruemler
07. May 2014 · 09:57 UTC
Nice game. Good graphics and music. Somehow difficult after level 8 or so, since the game is missing overview. The player health is soon too low and it is too expensive to fill it up again. A little better balancing would be cool.
Due to a bug I was able to buy all tower pieces on the second attempt without spending any money.
Jiggawatt
07. May 2014 · 19:05 UTC
Streamed this. It's an interesting new take on the tower defense genre, but I still felt like the gameplay wasn't involving enough. There weren't really any decisions to make apart from spamming projectiles (past the upgrade screen of course). Also, the 3D environment made it hard to sense the enemies, felt like they were just sneaking up on me. Could've used some sort of indicator for approaching enemies. But it's alright, upgrades make any game better.
pichifino
10. May 2014 · 15:57 UTC
Great game
shadow64
11. May 2014 · 01:56 UTC
I thought the tension here was nice and you really created a well designed game. The music was pretty good, I would've liked some sound effects.

My only other suggestion would be maybe a radar of some kind? There were so many times when I only knew I was being chased after I was hit.

In terms of balance. I think it would be better if you could actually run away from the little spinners. I was kind of sad that there was nothing I could do once they were on me. They eventually did me in with very few steps left. Wish I had beat it, though so that's a good sign.

Thanks for sharing and thank you again for rating/playing my game! :D
edibletoaster
11. May 2014 · 22:15 UTC
Pretty cool. Some interesting things I saw:
Liked how you had to really worry about the ones that attacked you directly. Also how thinking about the structure early on could decide how the game plays later on.

Not sure if it was just me imagining things but it seems that the arrow ones may have been the best choice always for offensive tower rings?

Regardless, really fun game