Eradicator by Linky439

made by Linky439 for LD 43 (COMPO)

The ERADICATOR is the latest weapon created by the army. An incredible machine built to kill efficiently. But it needs a driver, and you are the one they picked. They hand you a list of targets.

Unfortunately, they are all located inside a huge city filled with innocent people. Your orders? Kill your targets while limiting collateral damage.

With that in mind, you are now looking at the city from the sky... Ready to shoot for the next 2 minutes.

Bear in mind your bullets won't only kill the ones you're supposed to kill...

Controls: * Use the mouse for everything! Move the crosshair towards the side of the screen to move the drone. * Click the left mouse button to shoot!

And that's all you have to know. You are, after all, a soldier who's following the orders.

Good luck.

Programs used: * GameMaker Studio 1.4 * Paint / Paint Shop Pro 7 * Bxfr / cGMusic / GXSCC

Windows	http://wyvup.com/?c=A20JNlC
Source code	http://wyvup.com/?c=A2qLkrz
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/eradicator

Ratings

Overall	27^th	4.087⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Fun	34^th	3.978⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	84^th	3.674⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Theme	97^th	3.978⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	49^th	4.104⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Audio	21^th	4.022⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Humor	80^th	3.45⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Mood	23^th	4.095⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Given		24🗳️	17🗨️

Feedback

Erendelous

02. Dec 2018 · 20:12 UTC

The game is really fun and colourful:)Not sure about the sacrificing, it's more like the "destroy everything" thing)

wie_

03. Dec 2018 · 17:18 UTC

The game works really well, and it's fun to play! Music and graphics all are great. I don't really know how to avoid killing innocents, as the streets are so crowded.

🎤 Linky439

06. Dec 2018 · 21:35 UTC

Thanks! Killing innocents is the "sacrifice" part of it, as you have to sacrifice innocent lives in order to accomplish your mission ;)

silkworm_sweatshop

06. Dec 2018 · 22:14 UTC

Cool stuff! I wish the gameplay would switch up a bit somehow but otherwise it's really polished and has a lot of style. Giving names to the victims in the end was a nice touch (but why was an 8 year old homeless person a target???).

🎤 Linky439

07. Dec 2018 · 11:17 UTC

@silkworm-sweatshop Thanks ^^

Yeah, why was an 8 year old homeless a target? Gotta make you think about what kind of orders you are following, right?

Yorsh

07. Dec 2018 · 13:53 UTC

I really love this game. Also, wow that's a crazy amount of stuff done in 48h !
It's really beautiful, the audio is great, it feels great to play, the people gets excited and runs around when you shoot, I love the score screen with the names and job of targets...too much good stuff.

The only thing that is a bit lacking IMO is a bit more depth in the "When and where to shoot" aspect. Maybe I missed something, but I just aimed and shot the target asap (still fun tho), without caring too much about the people around (since there are always pretty much the same number of people around). I think making the civilians a little less homogeneous could make the player care more about when to shoot (or make some color more valuable than others).

🎤 Linky439

07. Dec 2018 · 21:51 UTC

Thanks! I see what you mean. Yeah, it's pretty hard to avoid the civilians, there's probably something I could have done about that!

Guy Withivy

08. Dec 2018 · 11:20 UTC

Congratulations! very good work, graphics is awesome and idea is very strong. I found that mouse scrolling is a bit fast. Great job!

Jequed

08. Dec 2018 · 23:26 UTC

One of my favorite little touches you made to the game was that the people ran faster when they heard a shot. The crowds of people were really well handled and I spent one of my playthroughs just killing as many people as I could haha. I really like how you handled the theme of "sacrifices must be made" by having collateral damage. Overall really fun to play.

Fattori

10. Dec 2018 · 07:43 UTC

you know what? this game is deep, love the use of the theme, this is clever and fun, liked it a lot! i hope you polish it a little bit more for a later release <3

🎤 Linky439

10. Dec 2018 · 10:21 UTC

@guy-withivy Thanks for the feedback! I wasn't sure about the speed of scrolling, but since you have to go from one side of the town to another, I thought it'd better be fast ^^

@jequed You psychopath! ^^ Yeah, it made sense to me that people would run off whenever something was shooting close to them! Thanks for the feedback :)

@fattori Thanks! I might polish it a bit, I don't know yet... We'll see!

egos

10. Dec 2018 · 22:12 UTC

I like the concept and realisation !
Nice entry

Slashee the Cow

11. Dec 2018 · 04:05 UTC

Loved the graphics and sound!

Personally I didn't think it was a great implementation of the theme because you don't really have a choice about whether to sacrifice the innocent people or not, they're just unavoidable collateral damage. It may have been better if it wasn't nearly as crowded so you had the choice of killing them quickly (and therefore killing more targets but with more collateral damage) or following them until they get to a quiet area (so less collateral damage, but fewer targets killed overall).
It might also be worth counting the number of shots where you miss you target and the collateral damage from just them, or the number of innocents killed per target killed.

🎤 Linky439

11. Dec 2018 · 16:34 UTC

@egos Thanks!

@slashee-the-cow Thanks for the feedback! Well the theme was "Sacrifices must be made", not "Would you sacrifice..." ^^
So yeah, you must kill innocents to get your targets.

Almax

12. Dec 2018 · 22:40 UTC

That was genuinely good fun! SFX was a little loud but I really dug the interpretation of the theme, and the aesthetic was crazy, like shooting candies :smile: My only real complaint was the cursor didn't lock to the window so I kept loosing focus as I was trying to pan around looking for the next target. Otherwise great job!

Slashee the Cow

13. Dec 2018 · 02:25 UTC

@linky439 Yeah I guess it's just how people can interpret the theme differently, IMO to make a sacrifice you have to make a choice, whereas in your game the only way to actually play the game is by killing innocents so it isn't really a choice.

CaptainPilot

14. Dec 2018 · 22:40 UTC

I like the idea, it might have been nice to have some extra ways to manage the crowd to try and minimise casualties

Sam Minh

15. Dec 2018 · 16:46 UTC

Very nice game, it was a complete experience from the intro, to the gameplay, the sound and the goal. I had some instances where my mouse left the game screen, but the arcade window really added to the atmosphere. Good game!

oda

15. Dec 2018 · 21:13 UTC

Wow, amazing!
One of the best LD43 game I've played so far, amazing art, great music, smooth gameplay, nice interpretation of the theme. I love small details you added like list of targets and civilians killed at the end!

FireBug

16. Dec 2018 · 17:11 UTC

Crisp colors, catchy music, and a nicely nostalgic arcade feel! I tried to play a pacifist run, but it seems "sacrifices must be made". The ending especially makes this point, when you see the tragic details of your victims. Maybe in a future build (if you choose to continue this game) could have you sacrificing score points or elapsed time in order to clear the road and spare civilians?

🎤 Linky439

16. Dec 2018 · 18:21 UTC

@oda Thanks!

@firebug The only way to be a pacifist is by killing litteraly no one ^^
I'm happy to see you liked the ending, it was exactly designed with that in mind.

Good ideas for an eventual update, I'll keep that in store somewhere. Thanks for the feedback! :)

Tim Eriksen

31. Dec 2018 · 13:33 UTC

I really like that list of who got killed at the end. Nice touch! That being said I do think a diferent choice of music would fit better with what I interpreted as a rather dark game. I also think it would be a bit more challenging if there were fewer people in the streets so that I can make a choice to hit more of less people (sacrifice people for a quicker decicion). All in all a very good and well polished game, I am impressed!

negativice

31. Dec 2018 · 14:04 UTC

Wow very well rounded game, and it gets a bit moody at the end :cry:

negativice

31. Dec 2018 · 14:11 UTC

I thought id leave my hi-score as well here: 3718
It seems like it doesn't really penalize you for killing innocents.

Rosik

31. Dec 2018 · 15:49 UTC

Very simple game and at first I didn't notice arrow and thought, that I earn score by killing civilians :D

I really love your colorful art and sound, streams of civilians on the streets and the target list at the end (10 y/o lawyer, wow, that a real future!)