Void Eater by Dongle

made by Dongle for LD 42 (JAM)

Description: You are a young hero whose mission is to defeat the enormous octopus boss before it destroys you!

There are 3 tentacles that you have to beat before you can attack the boss head. We ran too short on time to make a visual for that or a boss spawn sequence.

Boss Tips: Each tentacle has two different attack phases: one which kills you quickly if you are hit, and one where it spawns enemies. When tentacles attack, they attack left or right so moving up and down is going to be your friend. Wait till the spawn enemies phase to attack the tentacles as this is the best strategy. Gif: https://media.giphy.com/media/ywkMFbdLLBNynpsWmG/giphy.gif

The boss creates purple tiles where he walks, and stepping on them will kill you very quickly.

Note: The game itself may be a little unbalanced and broken as we ran out of time to really tweak the performance (and add audio unfortunately), but nevertheless, we hope you enjoy it!

Controls: Move - WASD Attack - Down Button Dash - Space

HTML5 (web)	https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/715409
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/void-eater

Ratings

Overall	802^th	3.194⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Fun	772^th	3.042⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	1023^th	2.729⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Theme	841^th	3.194⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	28^th	4.541⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Humor	763^th	2.241⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Mood	674^th	3.044⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Given		30🗳️	28🗨️

Feedback

Handle

14. Aug 2018 · 00:01 UTC

Amazing artwork and animation. Seriously impressive. I could not figure out how to damage the main enemy at all, though. This has a ton of potential.

NullCode

14. Aug 2018 · 00:07 UTC

Good art, good game, couldn't kill the enemies.

trozen

14. Aug 2018 · 00:08 UTC

I agree, the art and animation is fantastic. The game is way too difficult though. I could not get past the tentacle boss- and I tried for quote awhile.

johnnydalvi

14. Aug 2018 · 00:09 UTC

Awesome artwork and concept, although the boss is too hard, the character die too fast and, hitboxes are not very clear and there is just the boss, you could put a whole level before him imho. Either way, very interesting entry and it does have a lot of potential, keep up the good work!

Dizzy

14. Aug 2018 · 00:14 UTC

Fantastic art and animations! I like difficult games so, impressive work!

MartinTristan

14. Aug 2018 · 00:32 UTC

Excellent art and animation! The controls are also tight. But this is HARD. I tried about 15 times before I reached the octopus monster. Getting the timing of the dash was pretty tricky. Thank god there was a checkpoint after that. But that monster is really tough. Harder than Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts :D. Overall, it was a great and interesting take on the theme.

Kovakomes

14. Aug 2018 · 01:46 UTC

The art and animation are really nice and smooth. Gameplay, I ran into a bug where nothing would die when health reached 0. This included the player character. Everything was invincible. I sat there and did nothing for awhile. The enemies eventually pushed me out into uncharted territory of nothingness.

Wekaj

14. Aug 2018 · 03:29 UTC

I love the art and animations, the game looks great! The dashes at the start took a while to get right, and having to pull the sword out each time got old, but thankfully there was a checkpoint at the boss. The boss fight was fun, I liked how the character controlled.

🎤 Dongle

14. Aug 2018 · 03:36 UTC

@handle The main boss can't be damaged till the tentacles are dead. We were supposed to create a graphic for that but forgot and ran out of time.

@trozen The trick is to let the tentacles attack first, then attack them when they are stationary.

@johnnydalvi The original design had a whole stage along with some story elements, but due to lack of time we had to trim it down to basically 2 rooms. We ended up focusing on the boss with the little time we had left. The boss is very beatable but really isn't conveyed clearly.

@kovakomes Very weird, I haven't seen that glitch D=.

@Wekaj I think I got really good at dashing from just testing, so when I created the path I made it too hard.

calixjumio

14. Aug 2018 · 04:17 UTC

Great art!!, wasnt sure how to start since the void would kill me if i didnt dash quickly enough, but overall good job!, great work

heyycap

14. Aug 2018 · 05:03 UTC

The void kills you really fast. Having a "boss" right away is kind of tough. With a little balancing this could be pretty fun. Nice art.

beanslasher

14. Aug 2018 · 05:08 UTC

I liked the game, just had trouble with the initial dashing.

Zicboy

14. Aug 2018 · 05:08 UTC

Really liked the art and animations! great job!

Lefinno

14. Aug 2018 · 05:18 UTC

Great art and gameplay, a bit confusing, and also there is quite some bugs, I can't seem to die and I can't hit the boss, also I can clip out to the great nothingness

🎤 Dongle

14. Aug 2018 · 06:03 UTC

@lefinno and @kovakomes I need more information to fix it. It works fine for most people, maybe try a different browser. (I think firefox is worst)

The problem could be your pcs aren't capable of running it and are experiencing by products of lag. The images in the game a quite large because everything was designed with higher resolutions in mind.

karpopper

14. Aug 2018 · 06:44 UTC

there could have been some way to convey that you coouldnt hit the boss like having a shield or something or being transparent, I got confused for a bit.

troligtvis

14. Aug 2018 · 06:47 UTC

Nice art and gameplay though as other say it was a bit hard to understand where the hitboxes on the enemies where. And also how to kill the boss.
But overall a great game :) Keep on working with it! Awesome work!!

One minor thing is that the crosshair is disappearing when you go over muddy tiles 😂

William Corrin

14. Aug 2018 · 06:54 UTC

The art is really really good. The game itself is also really good. The only thing that needs work really is the mechanics, and the difficulty ramp. The dash is too hard to control imo, and the boss needs some work / something leading up to it.

The theme wasn't super present, the void of course makes you run out of space but it seemed more like it was thrown in there just because, and that the game itself is more of just a challenging boss fight.

Good stuff though!

Gus the Shark

14. Aug 2018 · 06:54 UTC

Nice game, the mechanics remind me of castle crashers. I liked the graphics and I wish there was some music to go with all the action. The beginning is a bit hard to beat, since your dash goes far but you can't see where the gaps are so you just have to memorize them. The boss is really hard. Nice work!

🎤 Dongle

14. Aug 2018 · 07:18 UTC

@troligtvis Haha, that crosshair graphic wasn't supposed to be visible (It's the graphic that camera is tied to).

troligtvis

14. Aug 2018 · 07:23 UTC

@dongle haha I see! So then it was the other way around xD

Alien

14. Aug 2018 · 07:28 UTC

The graphics and Gameplay are Epic! Really interesting game. It took me few mins to figure few things about the game other than that Its a really awesome game

Swampinpunk182

14. Aug 2018 · 07:36 UTC

Really good looking game! Couldn't hit any of the enemies, though!

Alex_ADEdge

14. Aug 2018 · 15:06 UTC

Very nice looking game. Some of the controls/gameplay a bit clunky. But otherwise solid stuff! That boss is tough, and I liked the mysterious eyes looking at you from the edges of the map ^_^

Vekstr

14. Aug 2018 · 18:31 UTC

Nice art and animation! The intro section is a little confusing though, it took me quite a while to realize that I had to dash upwards, and I even died several times in the process :laughing:

skigfx

15. Aug 2018 · 23:54 UTC

boy, it's beautiful! id like to play full version

Cursed Pixel

16. Aug 2018 · 10:51 UTC

Really fun my only gripe is that i dont feel like i can attack up or down (the white slash only goes to the sides) also heard no sound maybe something to do with my browser. Love the art <3

danielblanco3d

26. Aug 2018 · 09:36 UTC

Really hard gameplay for me, very good graphics.