The Altar of Sacrifice by Rombus

[raw]
made by Rombus for LD 43 (COMPO)

ld43_12.gif

Description

Objective - Comply with 20 sacrifices to win. - Don't lower to 0 the "popularity" meter (nor your health, of course)

Gameplay - Grab villagers from the outsides of the houses or buy pigs at the shop to sacrifice at the altar.
- Two hits are needed to grab a villager. The first hit will leave the villager running for help. If it manages to collide with another villager, it will get "upset" and it will lower your popularity meter.
- If you're carrying a villager you must avoid touching other villagers, as they will became "upset" too and lower your popularity meter as well. - To increase your popularity meter you have to spend money at the shop. - The god of raining boulders is angry. Boulders will rain from the sky constantly. One hit drains half of your life bar, two hits and you're dead. Don't forget to buy potions at the shop. - A reptilian thief will run from left to right every once in a while. If you manage to kill him you'll earn 50 gold coins to spend at the shop. Be aware that reptilian thiefs are fast bastards, so they may run away from your range if you don't manage to land 5 hits on them prior to reaching your village's limits.

Potions - Potions can be bought at the shop and they will be consumed automatically when the player gets hurt.

Notes

I've used my previous entry as a "game engine" and that allowed me to have the Sunday off and also to spend a little bit more time with the music than in my previous jams (I have loops longer than 16 beats... ooooohhhh xD).
Borrowed gameplay ideas from my LD40 entry "Billy the giant hates dancing paragliders on a boat". You could say that this entry is the sequel to that game, and that game's prequel was "7th Day". So overall I have a trilogy going on here (lol).

If you beat the game you'll be rewarded with the best piece of music of the game IMO. That monotone rhythmic tune will be burned in your brain if you listen to it long enough.

I was going to ditch Pico-8 for LD43 due to being a little bit tired of it's token limit, but I couldn't finish my Löve2D based engine sff-love (https://github.com/SuperFastFramework/sff-love) so I had to use sff-p8 (https://github.com/SuperFastFramework/sff-p8) that is very reliable, specially the html5 export.

That's it, hope you enjoy the game!

upsetted<em>villager.png
reptilian</em>thief.png
animal<em>sacrifice.png
raining</em>boulders.png
local_shop.png

Ratings

Overall 206th 3.5⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 210th 3.352⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 257th 3.185⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 117th 3.87⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 155th 3.63⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 155th 3.296⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 109th 3.346⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 268th 3.1⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

Atium Addict
02. Dec 2018 · 17:20 UTC
Really solid concept gameplay! The default controls are a little unintuitive though.
Daniel_Abeleira
02. Dec 2018 · 17:21 UTC
Great work! I wish I could make art like that, nice and simple
Dimak
02. Dec 2018 · 20:59 UTC
Cool graphics and interesting gameplay! :)
Malghoul
02. Dec 2018 · 22:53 UTC
Very good game! I love the graphics and music (they remind me of older 8 bit games) but the controls are a little bit awkward to use.
DeathBySnail
02. Dec 2018 · 23:07 UTC
Love pico-8. Looks like you had fun making this.
John Gabriel
02. Dec 2018 · 23:26 UTC
I love the sense of humour here. It's this beautiful combination of random events and a dry tone that reminds me a bit of Terry Prachett.

Anyway, my strategy. I tend to look for stragglers; if there aren't any, find someone in a group and give 'em a punch so they move away from any onlookers. When they're nice and isolated, slug 'em, hoist 'em over your shoulder, and carry them to the altar to do unspeakable things to them.

...I would like the record to show that I am talking about the game here.
maycon
03. Dec 2018 · 00:08 UTC
Wow. A lot of work. The graphics are nice. And the gameplay is addicting. I love how the is complex to think, but simple to play. Great job, man.
Jannick Larsen
03. Dec 2018 · 00:33 UTC
i like the graphics and the music a lot!
zemmi
03. Dec 2018 · 03:03 UTC
Loved it. Always a good time sacrificing pigs and people. Chasing down the reptilian thief to get the cash bonus was a nice touch. I did find it a little too easy to just hang out by the altar and sacrifice villagers who spawned next to me. But no big deal, still a good time.
cqcumbers
03. Dec 2018 · 03:19 UTC
The menus and pixel art are very nice, and the gameplay is enjoyable. If I had to criticize anything, there does seem to be a bug where villagers only spawn left of the altar, and the game over screen could be more descriptive.
Tkap
03. Dec 2018 · 03:26 UTC
Really liked the art. Got nothing negative to say.
Secretmapper
03. Dec 2018 · 04:31 UTC
It's Kung Fu Monk!!!
deathray
03. Dec 2018 · 04:33 UTC
Really great balance of different gameplay elements, and great pixel art. I only wish there was some way to carry people around other people to avoid upsetting them because it seems to discourage you from traveling far from the altar.
🎤 Rombus
03. Dec 2018 · 04:35 UTC
@deathray you can jump over them if it's only one in your way. Otherwise you'll have to buy 2 pigs from the store often as that will restore the most popularity points :D
Almog
03. Dec 2018 · 04:45 UTC
I loved the 8 bit feel in this ! well done
foxor
03. Dec 2018 · 04:51 UTC
Very nice! I really like how the music changes on the different scenes.
JustWall Games
03. Dec 2018 · 05:02 UTC
I really enjoyed this. Simple and Fun. Cool Pixel Art and retro music!
TheseusInABottle
03. Dec 2018 · 07:42 UTC
Good game. I love the look of anything Pico-8 and who doesn't love sacraficing there neighbor's. Best past is the ending if you fail made me giggle a little.
ConnorThompson
03. Dec 2018 · 09:43 UTC
good graphics would be nice if you had an on screen indicator to show where the sacrifices have spawned
Frank Gevaerts
03. Dec 2018 · 15:26 UTC
Nice game with fitting graphics and sound. I wish I was better at playing these things!
Fnissalot
03. Dec 2018 · 15:47 UTC
Really nice! feels like a gameboy colorgame or something!
Killing the thief makes the game a bit too easy
JGower0502
03. Dec 2018 · 16:38 UTC
Great polished mechanics with really lovely music and a fantastic UI, well done with this one!
WongKongPhooey
03. Dec 2018 · 20:41 UTC
Great game! Played it multiple times and ended up using all of the mechanics and functions. It all ties together very well! Great graphical work and UI. Credit for using Pico-8 too (so did I :p). Well done!
jihem
04. Dec 2018 · 20:30 UTC
Nice game with good mechanics and Pico-8 empowered :-)
commanderstitch
09. Dec 2018 · 23:09 UTC
Hey, i beat it. Nice! Simple, concise, was able to figure how to do everything. Nice job!
PhilStrahl
18. Dec 2018 · 02:18 UTC
Once again another great game for the NES— I mean Pico-8 library! Very easy to get into, very fun to play. Perhaps a bit too easy, but then again I might be that I am *that* good at it. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTeUPXVSPps