Lifelight by Kromzem

[raw]
made by Kromzem for LD 44 (JAM)

„Once upon a time in a world filled with darkness, monsters lived in peace and harmony. Until a creature of light was born. Tortured by the light emitted by the strange creature, the monsters began to attack to bring back the natural order of the world. Just as the first monster’s strike was set to end the gleaming light for good, the light began to transform into…“

In this game you will play the manifestation of light born in a world filled with darkness. It is your destiny to bring light into these dreary malicious realms or else you will get consumed by the shadows. Hordes of monsters will get attracted by your light like moths and they will attack you in waves. Killing a monster with your beams of light will grant you light life, which will protect you from their attacks and even strengthen your very own offence. But be aware, the more powerful your attacks are, the more they will drain the light out of you.

What happens if darkness perishes once and for all? It is about you to find out

This game is my (Kromzem’s) third entry for the Ludum Dare Game Jam and the second entry for both Manti and Gumbarius, who already participated in my past projects during the past two Jams.

Credits:

Kromzem: Coding
Manti: Sprites, Artworks
Gumbarius: Balancing , Animation, Translation into English

Soundeffects:
https://freesound.org/

Music (all taken from Newgrounds):
Basset-Hound, „Horror Ambience“, https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/565843
MetroPiano, „Horror Ambiance (Scariest)“, https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/568223
Ragezero, „Psychic Horror“, https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/484498
toby3d, „Creepy music box“, https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/557008
velvet-alchemy, „music box“, https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/510000
HonorOfStyle, „(HoS) Music Box Loop“, https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/454377
johnfn, „hope“, https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/703509

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Lifelight.gif

https://youtu.be/dqP2fCfnlac

Ratings

Given 15🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

Matthew McClure
30. Apr 2019 · 19:34 UTC
I really liked the overall look of the game. The lighting and graphics were really cool!
NitroPictures
30. Apr 2019 · 19:35 UTC
Really nice game! My best was wave 8. I really love the artwork, great job!
Drestin
30. Apr 2019 · 19:37 UTC
A fun game to play!
Pretty hard actually, specially when you get stuck to the sides of the level x)

Nice take on the theme to consider the "life is munitions" as light.
I think the graphics and the game atmosphere very nice, good job guys.
JofersGames
30. Apr 2019 · 19:38 UTC
Looks amazing, great job :)
davekingcool
30. Apr 2019 · 19:40 UTC
really nice artwork/animations and lighting
szabe
30. Apr 2019 · 19:41 UTC
Really polished and moody bullet hell shooter! The sprites look fantastic and the controls are smooth. I don't really see much connection with the theme though and the new mechanic is basically a life system. Nevertheless, nice job.
agurcan
30. Apr 2019 · 19:41 UTC
Really satisfying game! The art and sound effects are great! My only minor issue with this game was that it got a bit too repetitive over time and there wasn't a clear indication of my health. Really satisfying and fun overall!
Fear Games
30. Apr 2019 · 19:45 UTC
Really enjoyed the graphics and the music.
Maytch
30. Apr 2019 · 19:52 UTC
Nice, finished it. Very polished game!
GhAyoub
30. Apr 2019 · 20:04 UTC
Cool game and mechanics, love it!
refraction
30. Apr 2019 · 20:04 UTC
Great atmosphere in this game and the music fit really well. The story was nicely played out, the only thing which caught me offguard was when the game started, I thought I was still in a cutscene, having some sort of UI appear might have told me "hey, you're ingame now", it would have been nice to see how much light I had and how much health I had remaining, kinda just died out of nowhere xD Good job though!
Nico Fallosch
01. May 2019 · 11:28 UTC
Really nice artwork and animations and soundtrack loved it.
Gameplay was a bit boring to me. Some upgrade system after a wave would be nice.
Nerzal
01. May 2019 · 11:29 UTC
Nice athmosphere, loved how you made the story :D the first 10 waves felt a little to easy, but all in all great game!
MZA
01. May 2019 · 11:31 UTC
Artwork is amazing! Difficult game but challenging in a good way. Is there an end to the game or a leaderboard - Im unsure?

Bonus points for making the enemies look like Gengar - my favourite Pokemon.
Tell me you know Gengar.
Shunaky
01. May 2019 · 11:33 UTC
Really well drawn characters, and really fun to play too.

The atmosphere of the game is incredible.

I don't know if it's just me, but those dark monsters look a lot like pokémons hahaha

Nce job on this game!
Oktarian
01. May 2019 · 11:37 UTC
Everything about this game is awesome!
I've always wondered how you can achieve this dark atmosphere with the lights etc, maybe you could explain!
🎤 Kromzem
01. May 2019 · 11:57 UTC
@mza Yeah, sure we know about Gengar. Huge Pokemon fans here :D After our artist has drawn the enemy she quickly realised that it looks a lot like a fluffy Genger xD
🎤 Kromzem
01. May 2019 · 11:59 UTC
@nico-fallosch Thanks for your review. We also had in mind to put in an upgrade system or something like that, but for the sake of polishing the rest of the game, this idea hat to be cut off in the end.
🎤 Kromzem
01. May 2019 · 12:02 UTC
@oktarian We're glad you like our game <3 Maybe you can add me via Discord or something and I try to recap how I achieved such an atmosphere :D

Discord: Kromzem#1165
🎤 Kromzem
01. May 2019 · 12:06 UTC
@refraction Yes, I agree that the transition to the core gameplay or the missing HUD in general can be confusing. My goal was to focus more on atmosphere, so I decided to cut off the UI to improve the immersion of the game. I will definitely think about on how to improve this point ;)
MsAlison
01. May 2019 · 12:23 UTC
Lot of fun and challenge ! the 6th wave for me I have to retry :)
Saering
01. May 2019 · 13:34 UTC
That was a funny game, I really enjoyed playing it ! I lost at wave 14 on my first try, feels frustrating but I guess I did great haha Many things to say !

- I like the art, monsters are cool, their animations are great, you can feel them ready to kill you, happy to do so and that they having nothing to lose trying. About the bullets colors, I'd have gone for a more different palette between the player and the monsters, no need to go for a basic green/red, but maybe it would have been more beautiful to fire lots of colors while monsters fire red/purple/orange bullets.
- I don't like the main menu, there's 0 animation in it, if the music weren't there I would have think the game crashed. There's no feedback on buttons too, so this is pretty sad because it's the first thing I saw ^^
- The music is cool, audio too, but maybe a more horrific sound design could be cool! You're in the dark, with lots of monsters, play on that to scare the player a bit ! I know it's not a horror game tho
- I like the way the waves are getting harder to beat, however I only felt the difficulty getting really hard on wave 8 or 9 maybe, and it was juste because there were much more enemies. I think it would have been better to keep some enemies for last levels, not spawn them until level 6 or 7, and then when the player is used to the easy patterns, he has to learn how to face a new enemy. That's the reason I don't want to play again, I have nothing to discover, even if I didn't reach the last level I'm pretty sure there's no bonus enemy in it (I might be wrong though, but that is the feeling I have!)
- More feedbacks would have been great, sometimes I wasn't sure about bullets if they did hit me, and when I died I was like "okay but why ?" I had no way to know I was about to die. Also when light comes to the player after killing an enemy, the animation is cool so you should accentuate it !
- The audio is cool, I had a feeling some music did not loop perfectly, otherwise it matched the game atmosphere pretty well
- I did not really feel the theme...

I think that's it ! Oh and you can't skip the credits, and they're long so it could be cool, but it is a detail :) Thanks for the game, it is a great entry!
🎤 Kromzem
01. May 2019 · 13:55 UTC
@saering Uff, thats a pretty detailed review, thanks for that in the first place <3 We sure will keep your critics into account to improve the game. They sure really will help us, making it a well polished and complete experience.

PS:
The reason you didn't feel the theme is because we also didn't feel it, so we just moved a bit away from it and made the game just a bit theme conform, to keep more freedom on what our vision was :)
Nillard
01. May 2019 · 16:26 UTC
Between the stage border, different colored glowing eyes, and the player's sprite changing, the visual information in this game is superb.
CarlsonAndPeeters
02. May 2019 · 08:23 UTC
The artwork was fantastic. I really love the creature designs and the way their eyes glow in the darkness. The difficulty kind of spiked a bit toward the end, but other than that it was really great all around. And thanks for tuning into the stream!
HenanBoy
03. May 2019 · 03:57 UTC
Really fun game! The art work is superb, and the music really contributes to the atmosphere of the game. One thing though, when I was playing, the controls unexpectedly stopped working. While I could shoot, the bullets didn't seem to do damage, and I could not move. Other then that, great game!