Ritual Slaughter by Steel_Dev

made by Steel_Dev for LD 43 (JAM)

Ritual Slaughter!

Ritual<em>Slaughter</em>Cover_Art.png

In this game, Lucifer is trying to destroy the world, and the worlds only hope is you- or are you in it for just the power gained? You must sacrifice parts of game mechanics to summon Lucifer, making it more difficult to defeat him, once he is dead, the world is saved, and you can do whatever with your newly gained power.. just don't let it get to your head..

Other info

Lucifer is an Archangel gone bad, a man gone sour. He hated gods creation, and wants to destroy it. You must stop him.

In the battle, he has 3 Phases.

Phase 1 is pretty simple, he will chase you with his blade and claws and slash at you, all while summoning demons to attack you.

Phase 2(at 200HP) he gets faster, and grows his wings out- flying after you and shooting fireballs- and spawning even more demons.

Phase 3(at 50HP) he gets quicker with his fireballs.

The small demons can be killed for a chance to drop more ammunition for you.

Good luck! You may need it~

Check out the Guide at the bottom of the description if you need an explanation on what to do :D

Tools

Credits are in game

I used the Unity game engine, with VSCode (Language: C#)

Used Aseprite and Paint.Net for art (me)

Used Aseprite and PainttoolSAI for art (Nikki - Deviantart)

Music done by me - Recorded using Audacity and my Guitar

SFX done by me using BFXR

Controls

Keyboard and mouse will only work- Controller will not properly work.

Movement - W,A,S,D

Attacking - LMB & RMB (Left click and right click)

Interact - E

Guide (just in case - and since I didn't have time to make things more obvious sadly)

Get the spray paint and paint the pentagram on the ground in the building.

Then get the metal bowl (for the spell items, of course), and place that in the center of the pentagram.

Grab your weapons and ammo- The colt, and the Archangel blade.

Summon Lucifer by selecting 5 game mechanics to sacrifice.

Down Lucifer with your gun - Kill the small demons for extra ammo.

Then when he's downed, kill him with the Archangel blade (RMB when near him).

Touch his Angelic soul, and choose your ultimate power!

Go to the door at the top of the building (above the pentagram) and leave to the end!

Be sure to read your end-game summary after leaving the ritual for your stats, and a little description about your sacrifices and what they caused- along with what you get from your "Ultimate Power" >;)

Thanks for playing! I hope you enjoy!

Windows	https://steel-dev.itch.io/ritual-slaughter
macOS	https://steel-dev.itch.io/ritual-slaughter
Linux	https://steel-dev.itch.io/ritual-slaughter
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/ritual-slaughter

Ratings

Overall	620^th	3.318⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Fun	730^th	2.977⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	563^th	3.091⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Theme	249^th	3.864⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	633^th	3.295⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Audio	552^th	2.841⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Humor	557^th	2.75⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Mood	410^th	3.452⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Given		22🗳️	31🗨️

Feedback

Ravarion

04. Dec 2018 · 14:12 UTC

Fun game. Beginning and end are just a bit confusing. I think the ritual items could have been closer, and the ending wouldn't require you to go through the door, since I was just running around for a minute wondering why the game wasn't over. Solid gameplay, though.

qviguier

04. Dec 2018 · 14:14 UTC

Hey there, this is pretty good!
i love that you made text prompts and the ritual preparation bit, it really adds to the anticipation.
ind the sacrifice mechanic is really cool, even if i would have gone for heavy-er sacrifices (like "no melee" instead of "less attack speed")
i would have made the player character speedier tho, right now its very hard to escape lucifer
furthermore, reloading could have been automatic at 0 ammo, for quality of life ;D
in the end, great jam entry ! keep up the good work man !

🎤 Steel_Dev

04. Dec 2018 · 14:15 UTC

@ravarion Thanks! and yeah, I wanted to do a cut scene to let the player know what to do- but didn't have time to do so DD:

sadzanenyama

04. Dec 2018 · 14:36 UTC

Good game but I have a few suggestions. If the player dies, give him an option to skip the setup part. Also, not really sure how I'm supposed to dodge the fireballs, they move too fast. Also I would suggest automatic reloading at 0 bullets, its quite annoying to have to continually press R. Otherwise, the game has a good atmosphere and has quite an interesting concept.

Ravarion

04. Dec 2018 · 14:55 UTC

@sadzanenyama Oh yeah, hitting R while trying to run right was deadly.

🎤 Steel_Dev

04. Dec 2018 · 15:01 UTC

@ravarion @sadzanenyama I knew the reloading would be annoying- it was on my todo list to fix, or make better, but time D: most of the time was spent on animating the boss and recording the music- along with trying to fix bugs xD and the fireballs.. knew they were too fast.. forgot to fix that D: my apologies- i'm glad you enjoyed it, though :D

abroadgames

04. Dec 2018 · 15:13 UTC

Really good execution of the jam theme. I love how at the beginning you choose which abilities to sacrifice. Adds quite a bit of replayability on that front. It is slightly inconvenient that you have to start the ritual all from the beginning everytime you die though also I feel like I get stuck on walls a bit. Great game and amazing execution of the theme.

Ravarion

04. Dec 2018 · 16:14 UTC

@steel-dev I didn't sacrifice speed, so maybe that's why, but I didn't feel like the fireballs were too fast.

jharler

04. Dec 2018 · 19:57 UTC

Interesting take on the theme. When it said I had to sacrifice 5 (5!!!) things, I knew this would be tough, and it sure was. This was an intense experience. Well done!

Cipery

05. Dec 2018 · 08:12 UTC

Pretty nice game you got there, I really like the art and "fluidness"! Difficulty seems kinda high and redoing the setup part is kinda grindy. I guess we have to sacrifice some more time to kill the Lucifer!

🎤 Steel_Dev

05. Dec 2018 · 13:53 UTC

glad you liked it :DDD @cipery and yeah, I figured the difficulty would be a bit much.. is always hard to balance when you're the dev and you know all the tricks normal players wouldn't know haha, and yeah, the setup can be a bit annoying if you are dying a lot- but I also feel like it goes with the theme well :D

Cipery

05. Dec 2018 · 21:20 UTC

@steel-dev yeah it fits the theme pretty nicely :) And you are right, devs have this problem with difficulty, cause when you play your game over and over again, like 50 times minimum, you get so good at it that you "loose touch with reality" and cant rly imagine how its gonna be for newbies. I tested my game on my brother and my friend, just sitting next to them, not saying anything, checking how they play it, if they get stuck, or annoyed by something.. ofc that might be hard in such short time window :D

🎤 Steel_Dev

05. Dec 2018 · 21:45 UTC

@cipery yeah :D thanks for understanding mate- ill check your game out soon, actually- return the favor, you know? :D

Cipery

05. Dec 2018 · 22:00 UTC

@steel-dev well that's up to you, thanks in advance, if you do so :) I find playing&reviewing the games is as enjoyale as makin them :D

Vlad Ilisan

07. Dec 2018 · 10:24 UTC

Good job!

syRoK

07. Dec 2018 · 11:12 UTC

Very good project for one person, I liked it and I enjoyed playing)

Vlad Ilisan

07. Dec 2018 · 17:19 UTC

Tried to kill Lucifer a couple of times....didn't worked out :( But I had a lot of fun :))) One of the best games I played this LD. Just a small tip, I think it would be better if the reload was automatic. It was hard to press R while I was moving. Extremely good game nonetheless!

🎤 Steel_Dev

07. Dec 2018 · 17:22 UTC

Thanks for the feedback! and yeah.. the automatic reload was something I didn't think of during development D: I understand that reloading while moving is difficult- I'll keep that in mind for my next entry :D Thanks for playing ^-^ @vlad-ilisan

also- difficult bosses.. mmm my specialty! >:) haha

RenegadePunisher

07. Dec 2018 · 17:30 UTC

Really good effort. I couldn't kill him, no matter what I chose to sacrifice. Maybe its just me being a bit rubbish.
I like the way you have the player sacrifice abilities. Ties in perfectly with the theme and has a real impact on the game.

🎤 Steel_Dev

07. Dec 2018 · 17:32 UTC

:D So glad you enjoyed it! and aw- I wish you luck if you do try again! @renegadepunisher

Arvejeitor

07. Dec 2018 · 17:37 UTC

Nice game! it fits the theme so well!

🎤 Steel_Dev

07. Dec 2018 · 17:37 UTC

Thank you so much! Glad you liked it! @arvejeitor

Antti Haavikko

07. Dec 2018 · 20:21 UTC

Couldn't beat it in couple of tries and I don't think I wanna slog through that intro bit another time anymore. Sure the ritual bit was neat the first time and gave a nice anticipation of whats to come but it should 100% be skippable considering how difficult the actual fight is. It was kinda weird that you had to sacrifice 5 things right from the get go, like wasn't that over half of the available abilities. I mean, you can't sacrifice what you don't have. Quite a lot of people seem to have gone with the sacrifice and ability and that probably would have worked better here too.

Seems like the different abilities weren't balanced very well. Losing vision was a no brainer every time after I noticed that it just makes the screen a bit darker. And I didn't try the unnerfed melee but after sacrificing it became completely useless. So it seemed a lot smarter to just focus on the gun. Except it ran out of ammo and that reloading thing that has already been mentioned quite a few times. And I'm not even sure I managed to pick up any of those ammo drops. Were you supposed to pick them up by just walking over or did you need to hit E? I mean that's quite a lot for left hand only to constantly rotate around WASD to circle strafe around satan to dodge his fireballs and at the same time keep mashing R and E every second or so. I don't have enough fingers in one hand for that.

The art was pretty good even though it wasn't quite cohesive. There were some classic z-ordering issues with the sprites where stuff that was further back (i.e. more up) were on top of closer things. I'd also increase some of the UI elements some more. Like the mission info box and definitely make the red text in the middle more readable by adding a white outline or something to it. It was a bit hard to read and I'm not even red green color blind. The font selection didn't help with that either. I at least didn't hear any music at all even though there was a slider for it in the menu and the sound effects were also quite bland and repetitive.

Anyways, good job! I rarely complain about difficulty (being too high at least :sunglasses:), I'd happily bash my head against this mofo until conquered if it was a bit more accessible...

🎤 Steel_Dev

07. Dec 2018 · 22:18 UTC

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it- and Yeah, I completely agree with all of this (Except the art part- I think the art is fine- but I do agree with the weird z-ordering). Most of the time was put into the boss battle itself- since lots of bugs and issues had to be fixed, leaving me with no time for the small-extra features to make the game better sadly D: But, thanks for playing, and leaving such a nice long bit of feedback :D @antti-haavikko

Lyrcaxis

08. Dec 2018 · 01:55 UTC

Oof, is this even finishable? Was interesting until I realized I can't finish :p

🎤 Steel_Dev

08. Dec 2018 · 02:34 UTC

@lyrcaxis yeah- many people I've watched play have finished it- and of course I've finished it myself tons of times- thanks for playing though :D I believe you can do it- here's a little tip: stay a good distance from him, and strafe in circles around him while keeping the cursor trained on him and unload- Doesn't take too many shots to take him out :)

Rodrigo Denúbila

11. Dec 2018 · 03:33 UTC

Interesting concept, nice take on the theme. The art is nice too. Good job!

AlexT_Design

17. Dec 2018 · 22:41 UTC

@steel-dev Hey, thanks for sharing! I really liked the approach you took with sacrifice on multiple sides of the game! I had a really hard time playing it, though. I think if you were able to tweak a few of the mechanics it would be more balanced. Everything moved so fast that sacrificing speed seemed like an impossibility to me. I had a strategy sort-of at one point, but RNG didn't allow.

I never made it to phase 2, sorry. You can watch my gameplay of it here, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6-oBWViWFc