LudumData

Secret Knight by shinysteel

[raw]
made by shinysteel for LD 42 (COMPO)

Help the King control his rapidly growing kingdom in Secret Knight, my first Ludum Dare game.

background.PNG

The King demands that you, Secret Knight, must silently assassinate his people so they do not overthrow him. However, try to do it in secret! If there are at least 10 witnesses, the King will have to execute you! The King will also execute you if you slaughter too many Villagers, or if you let too many live...

Screenshot 2018-08-13 02.41.04.png

The Controls are:

  • WASD to move

  • Space to jump

  • Mouseclick to attack

  • Left Shift to run

  • E to build a wall (Great for blocking sight of Villagers!)

  • Escape to pause

builadd.png

You will be executed if:

  • There are 10 or more Witnesses,

  • The town's population is below the King's Minimum

  • The town's population is above the King's Maximum

Secret Knight is best played without knowing too much about it, so the rest is up to you to discover! How large will your town grow in population, and will you run out of space?

large town.png

My record for final kill count is 145! Why not share yours in the comments?

highscore.png

Tips for those who struggle:

(!!! DON'T READ IF YOU LIKE DISCOVERING GAME MECHANICS YOURSELF !!!)

  • You can destroy village houses too! Just hit them 3 times. This will help slow down the population growth.

  • Villagers can't become witnesses if they can't see you... Build walls with "e" to kill undetected!

Windows https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-HYKeILr7J1EHYnn18hQZjxSRVZ-3cts/view?usp=sharing
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/secret-knight

Ratings

Overall 72th 3.899⭐ 91🧑‍⚖️
Fun 200th 3.534⭐ 91🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 112th 3.705⭐ 90🧑‍⚖️
Theme 271th 3.741⭐ 89🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 64th 4.049⭐ 93🧑‍⚖️
Audio 109th 3.567⭐ 91🧑‍⚖️
Humor 69th 3.5⭐ 84🧑‍⚖️
Mood 108th 3.537⭐ 83🧑‍⚖️
Given 72🗳️ 75🗨️

Feedback

antoined73
12. Aug 2018 · 18:28 UTC
Nice looking graphics, good overall theme and nice UI.
I think the game feets well in the theme too.
The cinematics are also really nice !
Congrats !
supriya
12. Aug 2018 · 18:55 UTC
This was a very clever concept! Has an interesting challenge dynamic... When the town gets more congested, more witnesses but also easier to kill without too many witnesses. Love the UI!
Devio
12. Aug 2018 · 23:30 UTC
Loving the initiative on the UI. Its different and quirky :D The theme is good I am enjoying the visuals greatly!
bovandenberg
12. Aug 2018 · 23:50 UTC
can't wait to play it.(:
Alpagakira
12. Aug 2018 · 23:51 UTC
that's a good game
Guilhermoni
13. Aug 2018 · 01:35 UTC
Even tho the controls are kinda clunky, thats an awesome game, really had fun with it, well done.
William Corrin
13. Aug 2018 · 02:06 UTC
One of the best games I've played so far today!
Doey
13. Aug 2018 · 02:23 UTC
I honestly couldn't stop playing! Really great fun!
squirmonkey
13. Aug 2018 · 02:29 UTC
A stealth game is a great interpretation of the theme. More villagers don't get in the way, but they do mean more witnesses. A very impressive game from 48h. I love the game over sequence. I'd love to have something in the game that says what the controls are, I had trouble figuring out the wall thing, but that's a minor gripe.
4thwallstudios
13. Aug 2018 · 02:38 UTC
Love the end scene! Fantastic aesthetic.
🎤 shinysteel
13. Aug 2018 · 02:39 UTC
@squirmonkey Agreed, unfortunately I ran out of time to do an introduction which would show the controls. I was a little too ambitious and got carried away... Your feedback is very helpful, thank you!
Page
13. Aug 2018 · 02:49 UTC
This game is really great, I just with the controls were a bit smoother
Jasper Hansen
13. Aug 2018 · 03:32 UTC
This game rocks. I love the villager sounds, the music is great, the graphics have such a nice style, the humor is brilliant and gives the game a fun, lighthearted tone, and overall the game just feels so clean and professional.
Handle
13. Aug 2018 · 03:50 UTC
Wow, I love the aesthetics of this game! The gameplay ideas are really clever and well thought-out, but I had a hard time getting the walls to behave the way I expected. I'm never sure where they'll be placed. That being said, I love that you can rotate them after placement.
SoyerTek
13. Aug 2018 · 03:52 UTC
The game is incredibly cool, love the look of the low poly graphics that are just a perfect match for the great game concept.
🎤 shinysteel
13. Aug 2018 · 03:57 UTC
@handle Yep :( I wish I had more time to to implement an indication of where walls would be built... Thank you for your feedback!
tulipekoni
13. Aug 2018 · 03:59 UTC
lovely to see an actual 3d game with cutscenes in ld! It's a bit hard when starting out and I didn't have a clue what to do :D (probably cuz I got stuck). eventually I got it. Good Job!
Joker_v
13. Aug 2018 · 05:17 UTC
good story settings, some bug still ,but interesting, the movement can be much better
Ian Kettlewell
13. Aug 2018 · 05:43 UTC
The cutscenes are amazing! Seriously, the cutscenes have better camera work than most real games, and the subtle animations in them are wonderful.

The music was also great, and I'm just really impressed overall with how much you managed to get done. Nice work!
🎤 shinysteel
13. Aug 2018 · 05:47 UTC
@ian-kettlewell Yes, I'm surprised myself I managed to finish all this! I actually even wanted to have an opening cinematic too, but ran out of time. I appreciate the feedback :)
Mazzletov
13. Aug 2018 · 06:02 UTC
Really good looking low poly effect. Funny sound effect when you kill someone. It's weird that the witness count goes up, even if you don't attack someone?
Simone Cicchetti
13. Aug 2018 · 06:19 UTC
Definetly a good game, the mechanics are solid, they make for strong emergent situations in which you might have many houses in one place that make many targets get stuck and allows an easy kill, but also might create an unespcted number of witnesses so that's interesting! Obviously would be better with different types of villagers and some more polishment, but it is a Game for Ludum Dare so lack of polishment is to be expected.

Only downside I found is that trying to kill the King didn't do anything. I was expecting some kind of easter egg at least, by putting him right there obviously will make players want to try kill him, and seeing no response from the game can be off putting. But yea, other than this small complain I have, I really feel this is a good game!
🎤 shinysteel
13. Aug 2018 · 06:21 UTC
@mazzletov Yup, if you swing your sword around villagers will get suspicious even if you don't kill anyone.
🎤 shinysteel
13. Aug 2018 · 06:26 UTC
@simone-cicchetti Yeah... I was going to make it so you would get executed but I was running out of time and prioritised balancing the game first! Oh well...
Marcel Oyuela-Bonzani
13. Aug 2018 · 07:13 UTC
This is super polished for how quickly you made it. I'd love to see a bigger and badder version.
deformhead
13. Aug 2018 · 09:11 UTC
This is so good, perfect low poly style, great sfx, wonderful animations... Love this game ! 5*
Naemis
13. Aug 2018 · 09:16 UTC
This is pretty well made! Although, you might want to fix the camera angle, perhaps having it a little bit higher then the player so it doesn't feel like my face is always on the ground. This is surprisingly well-made even without the animations/etc./etc. Very fun!
🎤 shinysteel
13. Aug 2018 · 09:25 UTC
@naemis You're right! I didn't even notice that till now, feedback noted. Thanks :)
Ajay.2002
13. Aug 2018 · 10:59 UTC
Nice polish on the game and I really love your UI design damn! The low poly modelling is very nice and cute, well done! This is awesome :thumbsup:
ursagames
13. Aug 2018 · 11:42 UTC
Loving all of the animation in the cutscenes and title screen! It's all so bouncy. The gameplay was pretty intuitive and it was fun trying to slay as many people as possible without being seen. The icons for witnesses were easy to understand and made for satisfying targets. I think just adding in the hotkey to the "Ready to build" text would have helped out to make everything easy to understand without reading anything out of the game. I did notice some FPS issues on my machine, but I'm using a really old GPU on my tower. Overall this is a really impressive entry, well done!
🎤 shinysteel
13. Aug 2018 · 11:49 UTC
@ursagames True! The solution is so simple, I can't believe I missed that... Thanks for the feedback :)
Eric Kulbiej
13. Aug 2018 · 12:57 UTC
Nice game, enjoyed it very much. Keep it up!
DangoGameDev
13. Aug 2018 · 14:00 UTC
Really great job on this.
Genmai
13. Aug 2018 · 18:51 UTC
really like all the extra detail given to create atmosphere, i felt invested in the moment, sounds and effects added a lot. only concern i had was getting stuck in props and the rather slow movement.
Lipsch
13. Aug 2018 · 19:46 UTC
The movement was not so good. Jumping was weird. But camera work was nice. The game wasn't too much fun but was put in scene pretty good.
aaranos
14. Aug 2018 · 05:19 UTC
Very impressive amount of work to be done in 48 hours. The movement was a little clunky but the game was fun. I didn't have a real use for the wall but I'm sure it can be used to prolong the game much longer than I was able to.
Bungalow
14. Aug 2018 · 11:51 UTC
THIS IS A COMPO GAME?! TOO GOOD!
jackou
14. Aug 2018 · 17:03 UTC
Really impressive! This is a lot you got done within such short time! Nice you actually also put an ending screen with some scripted camera, I really like this entry! Well done.
Vekstr
14. Aug 2018 · 18:52 UTC
That's some sweet cutscene at the end :laughing:
KMCE
15. Aug 2018 · 02:25 UTC
Highly impressed that it was only created in 48 hours. There was not one part that was lacking, audio fitted with the graphics nicely. And I really liked the lighting in it.
Flubz
15. Aug 2018 · 03:07 UTC
Brilliant game! Loved it! :smile:
mike_inPrinciple
15. Aug 2018 · 03:51 UTC
I've tried a few playthroughs and several times I felt like I was being spotted without justification. It doesn't mean I'm right, I just felt that way. :) So I started focusing on the witnesses. Doing this made me slower so the population would grow too fast for me to cope. Unfortunately, due to this dynamic I didn't enjoy your entry as much as I thought I would.

With this said, it looks like a fairly complete game, so congrats for that.
🎤 shinysteel
15. Aug 2018 · 04:23 UTC
@mike-inprinciple thanks for giving it a fair shot anyways!
tuism
15. Aug 2018 · 09:21 UTC
Mac/web possible?
Crafty mine
15. Aug 2018 · 09:40 UTC
Really nice game!quiet hard to do it stealthy!i just ended up swinging my sword and kill everyone i saw
Godd game!keep it up
DrunkardWolf
15. Aug 2018 · 09:45 UTC
Loved the art style and this was a really good take on the theme. Especially loved the animation when you have too many witnesses :P good job
Hare Software
15. Aug 2018 · 09:55 UTC
Amazing concept with a solid execution, amazing how you could get all this work done in such a short amount of time. I hope you expand on this game later so that I can kill some more people ;)
🎤 shinysteel
15. Aug 2018 · 09:58 UTC
@tuism Not at the moment! I tried before and couldn't figure it out, I'm probably just dumb :P I will try again later when I have more time.
Pyjamaboy
15. Aug 2018 · 10:54 UTC
This is such a great game. Love the concept of it, the music and sound effects (and of course the scene of the execution) is so top notch!
titos2k
15. Aug 2018 · 11:55 UTC
compo??? wow!
JOrbits
15. Aug 2018 · 15:20 UTC
Very fun game. I'm impressed by how many models you were able to design in 2 days and make a game with them. And the models still look super good.
Tannimun
15. Aug 2018 · 15:41 UTC
Cool concept and unique idea. Nice graphics and awesome cinematic. They music was on point, unfortunatly I found the footstep sound very anoying and too loud.
It wasn't clear how the witnesses spotted you. I tried building walls to get "privacy", but it didn't seem to do anything? Maybe I didn't build enough or just placed them badly.
Impressive how much you managed to do in such a short time!
Capernoited
15. Aug 2018 · 16:36 UTC
Very impressive for two days. I liked the graphics, especially the opening screen and the ending cutscene. The music was a little repetitive for me and the footstep sound effect was very grainy. I enjoyed the concept but I think it could be greatly improved with smoother movement and controls. It would also be great to have some sort of indication that you are detected to aid character placement and wall positioning. I hope that you continue to develop this game further.
Nitin Kumar
15. Aug 2018 · 17:43 UTC
Good graphics. There are many games with population as the base idea. This game is leading that race.
Kjetil
15. Aug 2018 · 18:39 UTC
Omg, you made a cinematic before endscreen!
Character controls were a bit static for an "action" type game, but really cool.
Flower
15. Aug 2018 · 20:14 UTC
Nice game!)
it's very fun
GhostGoatsGames
15. Aug 2018 · 20:42 UTC
Wow, this is great. I literally have nothing bad to say. Well done.
🎤 shinysteel
16. Aug 2018 · 02:17 UTC
That's a huge statement @nitin-kumar! I'm happy you think so, thank you! :smile:
🎤 shinysteel
16. Aug 2018 · 06:06 UTC
Your right @capernoited! That's a great idea, thanks for the helpful suggestion!
Killing kitty
16. Aug 2018 · 18:48 UTC
I LOVE THE ENDING!! That is literally the coolest addition to any ld game I've ever seen! This is definitely my favorite game this ld, it's just such a cool mechanic to balance out between minimum and maximum while trying not to be seen. Words do not do this game justice!
Alex_ADEdge
19. Aug 2018 · 06:49 UTC
A lot of fun to play, some cool game design going on here. An amusing game for sure!
ManBeardGames
22. Aug 2018 · 02:37 UTC
Really run to play through, definitely feeds into drive to want to improve my score. There is a strategy to this to figure out in order to maximize killing and not being seen. I didn't read the tips for those that struggle on the page, so I will say that the first one you mention isn't quite apparent in the game. There are also some times where I felt I wasn't seen, but i would still get a couple of witnesses. The camera zooms out with the mouse wheel, but I think allowing a little further zoom out could help alleviate being able to see safely when I'll be witnessed.

Over all, this is a fun game and I've come back to it a few times since the stream to try and improve my score (though, i haven't been able to much lol).

Here is the video from the play through on the stream.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/300334383
Void Productions
22. Aug 2018 · 20:43 UTC
@shinysteel Those r some praise worthy graphics u got there man, I'm stunned and congrats on ur first ludum dare game jam, we also r the first timers. Hope u would play our game too.