LudumData

Rampart by Jeremy Ryan

[raw]
made by Jeremy Ryan for LD 42 (COMPO)

screenshot.png

Randall angered the gods by stealing their milk. To redeem himself, he must survive a trial by ordeal --- a battle against an army of inanimate objects. This is going to take all the milk you can get.

Navigate around falling rocks

Use the arrow keys to move. Be careful not to get trapped!

rocks.png

Charge your attack by consuming milk

Each carton adds one range to your headbutt attack. Use space to charge forward!

milk.png

Break rocks for coins

The more rocks you break with a single attack, the greater the reward.

rambo.png

Don't run out of space

If you can no longer collect any milk, it's game over! Press R to return to the title screen.

ono.jpg

Controls

  • * Move: * Arrow keys

  • * Headbutt: * Space bar

  • * Restart: * R

About

This game was made with python, pygame, and a few pygame-compatible tools of my own called pyracy. All of the art was made in Paint.NET, and the music was written in Musescore. The soundtrack is on my Soundcloud.

I generally have relatively "off" game ideas, and end up with really glitchy interfaces and controls, so this event I decided to prioritize polish, usability, and audiovisual feedback. The game idea sort of evolved as I went, but I think it turned into a pretty solid Compo experience. I hope you enjoy playing Rampart!

Source code https://github.com/jeremycryan/LD42
Windows https://plasmastarfish.itch.io/rampart
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/rampart

Ratings

Overall 55th 3.944⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Fun 146th 3.648⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 125th 3.67⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Theme 60th 4.205⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 5th 4.424⭐ 48🧑‍⚖️
Audio 10th 4.047⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Humor 109th 3.238⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Mood 73th 3.651⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Given 44🗳️ 42🗨️

Feedback

Handle
12. Aug 2018 · 23:15 UTC
Wow, great pixel art! Clever mechanics as well, that's a great way for us to be able to claim some space back. Really well thought through, good job.
Swini
12. Aug 2018 · 23:23 UTC
Your the master of pixle art. Like the animal and its behaivior
:)
bovandenberg
12. Aug 2018 · 23:29 UTC
i wish that i could do such good pixel art.Good game.
M8rix
13. Aug 2018 · 00:05 UTC
What a well made little game! The graphics are on point. The music and sfx are really good. And everything simply feels so good and smooth. Dude, be proud. You made something great!
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
13. Aug 2018 · 00:30 UTC
@handle @swini @bovandenberg Thanks for the feedback everyone!

@M8rix I've historically not had games with great "feel" so that was something I really prioritized this time around. Glad it shows!
Stephen Coley
13. Aug 2018 · 02:50 UTC
Great artwork and cool premise. The mechanics were very focused and easy to learn. I especially like that you drink 2% milk to power up. Just like in real life. 💪
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
13. Aug 2018 · 02:52 UTC
@stephen-coley What can I say --- milk is the beverage of the gods.
adrisj7
13. Aug 2018 · 02:59 UTC
Found myself trying to come up with different strategies for playing the game (keeping combos next to milk tanks and letting the rocks pile up ect...). I wonder if there are any game breaking or optimal ones out there. The graphics are super nice, can tell you probably had fun designing the board. And the music is really nice too!
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
13. Aug 2018 · 03:03 UTC
@adrisj7 Thanks! You can definitely get a lot of points in one go by collecting 7 milk and just letting the arena fill up before firing; but you miss out on points in the meantime. The arena/landscape was one of the more fun things to draw, in addition to the milk animation. Glad you liked it!
Swordfish
13. Aug 2018 · 05:09 UTC
Wow, loving the art, and that floating effect is so smooth. I'm definitely going to have a look at the code for that. How many surfaces are there? Is it just one for the background and one for the arena? Or is the arena loaded as a sprite so you can move it easily? Or is it all in the camera work?

I always like to see what other people do with pygame.
BlueBlu
13. Aug 2018 · 12:20 UTC
the perfect ludum dare game!
BlueBlu
13. Aug 2018 · 12:20 UTC
the perfect ludum dare game!
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
13. Aug 2018 · 12:58 UTC
@swordfish There are only two surfaces for the background; the arena and the sky/mountains. The paralax bit on that I hard-coded at the last minute because I thought it would be cool haha.

The particles, spritesheet handler, and camerawork (at least zooming and panning) are from a [set of pygame tools](https://github.com/jeremycryan/pyracy) I wrote and made public about a week before the event --- might want to check that out if you work in pygame. I'm using about four different PID controllers in this game, haha.

At some point I want to add something to handle generic "game objects", and maybe things like layers/parallax. Maybe in the weeks before LD43.

Don't have time to look at your game now, but I'll check it out this evening!

@BlueBlu Thanks, means a lot --- there's some pretty stiff competition ;)
MissAlpha
13. Aug 2018 · 14:45 UTC
Nicely done! Very clean finish and no bugs, well done!
MrSerp
14. Aug 2018 · 01:17 UTC
Great art style and music, very different aesthetic to other entries I've seen and I love it!
Swordfish
14. Aug 2018 · 01:53 UTC
@jeremy-ryan well I'd say that worked out pretty well, the parallax really adds to the feel. 4 pids might be a little overkill, but the camera is very smooth because of it.

I've been working on my own extension to pygame for a little while now too, https://github.com/FRadford/pygame-systems not nearly as nice a name though. It looks like I've taken a pretty different approach from you; no pids in my camera :( and quite a few more sprite classes. I don't know if I need them all though, I only really use two of them.

And if you do have a look at my game, I'll warn you it's not nearly as polished as this and I am no artist; or composer for that matter.
mike_inPrinciple
14. Aug 2018 · 03:22 UTC
Liked the art. My least favourite part is the random placement of milk and obstacles. I didn't feel in control of my fate, which diminished my enjoyment of the game. I think it may be more interesting to have the placement of the obstacles and power ups either depend on the player, or the environment, or be otherwise predictable, so that players can make informed decisions.

Lastly, it's possible to pass a "turn" even when moving into a wall, which looks like a bug to me.
mahalis
14. Aug 2018 · 03:36 UTC
This is fantastic, but oof, that pun in the name... :) Seriously, great work - it's simple and fun and really well polished. Really liked the art - the engraving at the front of the board is a nice touch - and the animation / effects are solid as well.
Wheffle
14. Aug 2018 · 04:19 UTC
Music and art is epic. The game is really well polished, with nice audio and screen zoom/shake feedback. It felt *good* to ram a bunch of rocks. I like it! My one tiny gripe is that you don't pick up milk when you charge through it. Well done, nice entry!
5Spectra
14. Aug 2018 · 07:18 UTC
Very very nice game, if I need to point out an error I would say that the game should interpret when you lose, but this is not really a problem.
ROBOWARRIOR1982
14. Aug 2018 · 09:38 UTC
I love the principle and the pixel art, the music is very good too! The feedback is cool and the charging effect makes it very good! The theme is very well exploited, it lacks just a little something, can be a faster milk repop to give a faster pace! Good job!
Kornel
14. Aug 2018 · 10:22 UTC
Probably the most playable game I played so far! Nicely done!
TheCrittersCove
14. Aug 2018 · 12:22 UTC
Fun and short. I played a couple of times and got up to 10,900. The art is cute and polished. The music is nice, albeit a bit dramatic. The one thing that threw me off is the ground tiles. The ones in the middle feel like they should have some kind of purpose.
Diablo
14. Aug 2018 · 16:48 UTC
Awesome game man. Mechanic is creative and fun, I loved how you can build your ram distance, it forces players to think of when to ram instead of just going wild and mindlessly ramming everything.

I'd very much prefer that the stones spawn on their own instead of when I move, because when it got to a point where I couldn't move anymore, I just stood there waiting to lose (oh, and can you lose?). Also, it'd be nice to have your ram meter build up on it's own, but very slowly. This will allow players to continue playing even if they've made bad decisions, whilst not being a crutch. Sound is good, art is good. Well done man.
Lerc
14. Aug 2018 · 22:29 UTC
A few tweaks would help gameplay a bit. The situation where you have plenty of space to move, but can't get to any milk feels like a premature end. A mechanism where you can slowly remove (eat?) blocks would sllow you to get to the next milk if the path had only had a few obsticles in the way.
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
15. Aug 2018 · 00:08 UTC
@Lerc @Diablo Yeah, I ran out of time a bit for the "end game" situation; I was considering a mechanic where you could hit rocks three times, without milk, to break through; or a mechanic where you could extend your tongue to capture milk that within a square or two.

Alas, I prioritized audio, title screen, and figuring out how the hell to make an executable from python.

Thanks for the feedback though, definitely things to prioritize higher for LD43 and beyond!
CameronPenner
15. Aug 2018 · 00:42 UTC
Nicely done, I like the art style and the easing on the animations was clean. Good stuff.
Diablo
15. Aug 2018 · 05:05 UTC
@jeremy-ryan I too struggled with creating a python executable in the past, I found that pyinstaller was the quickest and simplest for me (Not sure if you used that)
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
15. Aug 2018 · 05:50 UTC
@diablo Yep! Pyinstaller works okay, it's just I always forget how best to correctly deal with assets and fonts.

I've used it for three compos to date but it still inevitably takes me an hour or more to get to a final build.
saoi-games
15. Aug 2018 · 07:38 UTC
Thank you for sharing your game with me. I played it on my stream tonight at https://www.twitch.tv/saoigames

I have rated your game, but all of my feedback was captured in the stream.

You can hear my comments in the archive at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/297520764
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
16. Aug 2018 · 05:02 UTC
@saoi-games Thank you! Sorry I couldn't catch the stream, but thanks for your comments!
KeyurRana
16. Aug 2018 · 06:49 UTC
I really like the art and animations. Gameplay is simple and fun. I love how you have make a decision to either consume milk or keep it for later. Ramming felt pretty good too. Great job!
Ekilibr
16. Aug 2018 · 06:59 UTC
Impressed by the quality of the game for a Compo event. The execution fits well with the theme, and once you got that cumulating power is more efficient your start playing with the level design and add some tactics in your moves. The pop of power sources seemed random tho, which can be a bit frustrating if it keeps on spawning in places locked by rocks that you can't break.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and again impressed by art and audio quality :)
Albin
16. Aug 2018 · 19:31 UTC
Very nice artstyle and the gameplay is fun and unique too. Good job!
CristiHKJ
17. Aug 2018 · 18:33 UTC
Nice game! Really cool and interesting! :D
daanvanyperen
17. Aug 2018 · 18:42 UTC
Cute art! Feel like there could be a bit more milk or some passive regen, keep getting stuck early on.
paulhocker
19. Aug 2018 · 03:55 UTC
really nice take on the theme - art and audio were top notch - loved the charge effect - thanks for making this
afendar
21. Aug 2018 · 19:35 UTC
Really great game, I loved playing it. Pixel art is really super clean. Really nice work!
silkworm_sweatshop
24. Aug 2018 · 22:09 UTC
Lovely art and music! Concept is neat too but man does the space fill up fast. I don't think I ever made it past a minute before I got stuck. I'd suggest slowing the pace a bit and gradually ramp up the difficulty.
Eric Kulbiej
25. Aug 2018 · 17:33 UTC
Great art style and sound. Good job. I like the mechanics as well. Keep it up!

Please do check my game maybe you’ll like it and leave some feedback.
Jens
01. Sep 2018 · 10:39 UTC
This was great! I love the music and the art in the game, well done!
ursagames
04. Sep 2018 · 07:17 UTC
I adore the pixel art in this! The gameplay was really interesting too. Well done! Thanks for sharing your game with my stream awhile back. Your game was played around 2:06 into this vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/298692367
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
04. Sep 2018 · 14:18 UTC
@ursagames Thanks for the playthrough, lots of good comments! Sorry I wasn't on the stream when you got to mine!
Jupiter_Hadley
08. Sep 2018 · 15:35 UTC
Cute graphics, interesting game. I included it in my compilation video series of the Ludum Dare 42 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/F8Gtbi3loPc
🎤 Jeremy Ryan
13. Sep 2018 · 19:31 UTC
@jupiter-hadley Awesome! Thanks for the play and feedback!