High Protein Diet Dungeon by Lex

[raw]
made by Lex for LD 40 (COMPO)

In HPDD you have to balance your health with your mobility. The more health you got the harder it is to move around. On the other hand, if your health is low you can move fast as a bullet, but can easily die if you make a mistake. Luckily the same goes for the monsters around, you can transfer your health to them shooting health bullets that deplete from your own health to make them slower (and you faster). Then dash and slice them up to deal damage and take some health back.

shot_health.gif

combat.gif

The game has a bit of a learning curve and is designed to make you want to play just one more time to try to beat the game.

Tools used: Unity, MagicaVoxel, Paint.net, Audacity, BFXR and WolframTones.

[Changelog] - Fixed spawn positions for monsters outside of the dungeon rending the game unbeatable. - Fixed a problem where the final event wasn't triggering upon collecting the final Meat. - Fixed a bug where your dash triggered the barrier before you could walk through it. - Reduced 1st monster health. - Fixed a bug where the player's dash collided with particles.

Ratings

Overall 214th 3.611⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Fun 208th 3.544⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 189th 3.477⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Theme 90th 4.033⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 164th 3.767⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Audio 182th 3.357⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 227th 3.075⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 360th 3.026⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Given 55🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Lex
04. Dec 2017 · 03:25 UTC
PS: There's an "ending".
hillexed
05. Dec 2017 · 04:50 UTC
Your dash mechanic was a lot of fun to use! I also loved the graphics - MagicaVoxel was a great choice and the dungeon felt very interesting. It was hard to tell when you would die and when you wouldn't, though; dashing into an enemy might mean you're too fat to dash a second time and defeat them. Overall, though, fun!
interface
05. Dec 2017 · 04:54 UTC
Argh! I suck! :-) Didn't get to the end but I'll try to revisit later. Great mood with the music.
Tony
05. Dec 2017 · 05:17 UTC
I really like the voxel look, the main mechanic (slashing and giving weight) was a bit confusing at first but you quickly get used to it and after that it's really fun!
Xacur
05. Dec 2017 · 05:41 UTC
A little hard to get used to the controls, but once you do it's fun.
SkullPixel
05. Dec 2017 · 21:56 UTC
This is awesome. The idea is amazing. Once you figure out what's happening, it's a really fun idea. I think it one potential change you should consider is making it so that you don't HAVE to kill all of the enemies, so you have the option of just hitting them with some fat and then running.
Overall, congratulations on a unique entry!
Priom
09. Dec 2017 · 09:49 UTC
Noice. I like the voxel graphics and the idea is certainly unique
M2tias
09. Dec 2017 · 10:01 UTC
Cool mechanics! I love blinks/dashes in games like these. Couldn't make it to the end but I might try again. The fighting mechanics need a bit more polish, but I understand that there's not infinite amount of time for that :)
Sometimes I felt that if I just dash endlessly at the enemies, I can't lose. Sometimes I just die instantly. Graphics are great and music/sound effects nice too. Good job!
jms
09. Dec 2017 · 18:11 UTC
You said that there was an ending, but I can't seem to get past the forcefield thing in the room with the three monsters :(. Based on what I've seen so far, though, I really like it :D

EDIT: I just figured it out! This may be a good note for future games, though! A bit more of a tutorial may be a good option. I know that sometimes it is a choice to exclude the tutorial, and I think it can be done, but it takes time, so for a game jam like ludum dare, I think it's best to include a tutorial. (Says the guy who forgot to include a tutorial xD)
FelipeDev
10. Dec 2017 · 01:02 UTC
Nice voxel art and music! The gameplay needs very quick reflexes. There a small mistake: You can defeat almost all enemies just dashing continuous (even at full HP). This game probably works better with lives. Anyway, good game!

My record was picking the key.
ErikU
10. Dec 2017 · 05:14 UTC
Really liking this one. Had a lot of fun playing it. Died to the ring of them that spawned after picking up the key a number of times. After a while I felt it was best to stay lean, but it did certainly carry some risk to it. Well done!
Fran Segura
10. Dec 2017 · 09:40 UTC
Nice game! Loved the voxel art and combat mechanics, it's pretty fun. The first run was a little though for me when a lot of enemies appeared, but then I got used to the dash and the experience improved a lot. Great job, congrats!
Gruhh
10. Dec 2017 · 11:11 UTC
I liked the concept, it is well integrated into the editing theme and the game is well developed. I think that the modification of the movement can cause a little frustration in the player, because it modifies the rhythm of the game, it is important to test several balances because I realized that I was slow very fast. Congratulations for the game.

Gostei do conceito, está bem integrado ao tema da edição e o jogo está bem desenvolvido. Acho que a modificação da movimentação pode causar um pouco de frustração no jogador, pois modifica o ritmo do jogo, é importante testar diversos balanceamentos pois percebi que fiquei lento muito rápido. Parabéns pelo jogo. :flag_br:
Raphael
11. Dec 2017 · 11:17 UTC
Nice game feel, simple and well executed.

Also implements the theme very well.

But I basically always shot some bullets when I was too slow so you aren't really punished for being too fat, maybe making it so you can't always just fire bullets to loose weight would be a more definitiv way of enforcing the theme.
Alex Sales
12. Dec 2017 · 00:26 UTC
Great interpretation of the theme, congratulations!. I liked the mechanics and the controls ;)
Logicon211
12. Dec 2017 · 00:28 UTC
Interesting idea. I always fired off most of my hp to move around fast.
doomshmuck
12. Dec 2017 · 04:10 UTC
The mechanics in this are pretty innovative, and it worked well. I had a lot of fun playing it, nice job! I do feel like if you get grouped up on, then you die REALLY fast, making it maybe a little difficulty spike-y. But besides that, this was a really good entry.
theloneplant
12. Dec 2017 · 08:02 UTC
I like the gameplay, very polished and the aesthetic is fantastic! I liked the risk/reward for unloading bullets to gain a longer dash and found it to be a very well done take on that concept! We've seen a lot of "more power makes you slower" mechanics but this mixes them very well. It feels great to dash through enemies, but the gun doesn't feel quite powerful enough to me considering it takes a lot of sacrifice to use, both speed and health wise. I feel like this is a minor balancing tweak and perhaps add a more satisfying particle effect when you hit stuff :)
artmajcher
12. Dec 2017 · 08:47 UTC
Cool mechanics and nice art style, great entry!
Zirrrus
12. Dec 2017 · 19:12 UTC
Cool game, I was terrible at it though. I liked the voxel art, very nice.
SeanNoonan
12. Dec 2017 · 22:36 UTC
I wasn't too sure what shooting was for other than losing protein - does it hurt the enemies?

The dash felt really satisfying and it was interesting that the distance was tied to protein (though I'm not sure what that was for outside of health). Can't put my finger on it, but it's either that the balance was a little off, some additional feedback was required, or both.

Really nice to see more 3D games this year :)
🎤 Lex
12. Dec 2017 · 23:39 UTC
Thanks for all those feedback guys! The game isn't completely balanced I know, some people say it's easy if you keep your health full but I honestly don't think you can beat it this way. I personally like to keep my health low and have long dashes around. It's a tradeoff between speed and vulnerability, if you make any mistakes dashing you're dead.

The gun sure seems useless, it's supposed to be used to slow down monsters but in the end I too just use it to get slimmer and faster again. Also, it was supposed to have a boss at the end that you would beat only by making him fatter and fatter with the gun until it explodes... but I din't had time for that.

A lot of people seemed confused about the mechanics and I guess that having a little tutorial would really help things there.

The theme isn't that great either, I just draw some random stuff and then tried to make things fit together. I'm no artist. Thinking back into the theme I'd go with a magnetic armor and robotic enemies that drop scraps that get dragged by your own armor, thus, making you heavier. Your scrap gun would make them slower and you lighter, but with lower defense. Damn, why didn't I have this idea before? (I'm not even sure I'd be able to make descent artwork for that)

Anyway, up till now I don't know of anyone who could beat the game. I even offered a beer for my coworkers to whoever beat it first... I guess the hard fun I tried to achieve was just too hard for a not so attractive game ;P
Flubz
13. Dec 2017 · 01:16 UTC
Really nice game, diggin that aesthetic style! Maybe would've worked even better as an orthographic axonometric view? Would love to see that! Well done :clap:
Schu
13. Dec 2017 · 15:26 UTC
Really nice work! I really like the movement mechanic since it's something that I haven't seen all that often. I do think it takes way too many bullets to defeat the enemies but otherwise everything works really well!
Tom Panton
21. Dec 2017 · 22:24 UTC
I enjoyed this a lot, great job! I love that voxel-ly art style, it looks great :) The gameplay is a lot of fun and the dash attack feels really satisfying to use when you're not very heavy. However, I found the game really confusing at first; I would have appreciated a tutorial to make it easier to understand the game.