The Temple of Horyuji by ZYXer

[raw]
made by ZYXer for LD34 (JAM)
_________________________

"Defend the Temple of Horyuji against haunted spirits!"
_________________________

CONTROLS

LEFT or RIGHT: Move
LEFT and RIGHT: Interact (Press both buttons at the same time)

_________________________

ABOUT THE GAME

This is a two button strategy management wall defense game. You also have to defend the temple against a growing threat. So I guess both themes are covered.

The game was supposed to be a Compo entry, but I ran out of time. So all graphics and code were done by me in 72 hours.

The gameplay is strongly inspired by the game Kingdom and the artwork is inspired by a Japanese painting I recently saw.

Sorry, I suck at making music/sounds. So the game is silent. You can search for "Relaxing Japanese music" on Youtube if you want manual background music.

_________________________

HINTS

* If you have a low framerate you can press Q to toggle particles.
* Press P to pause the game.

_________________________

TIPS FOR PROS

* Arrows only hit one enemy, catapult rocks can hit several enemies.
* Trees grow over time, but very slowly.
* The effects of level 5 buildings stack.
* All barricades and walls are fully healed each evening before the haunted spirits spawn.
* If you made it to day 8, you pretty much won. I never made it past that day.
* According to my calculations it's not possible to get beyond day 13. So if you reach day 13, you definitely won.

Ratings

Coolness 54% 3
Overall(Jam) 4.17 30
Fun(Jam) 4.07 26
Graphics(Jam) 4.55 42
Innovation(Jam) 3.62 183
Mood(Jam) 3.90 90
Theme(Jam) 4.04 200

Feedback

Hot Box Games
17. Dec 2015 · 22:38 UTC
Can't believe this doesn't have any comments. Loved this entry, graphics were top notch and gameplay felt solid. Tower defence system mixed with tactical resource harvesting! :D Both themes covered well, didn't even mind the lack of sound! :)
CatOnMars
17. Dec 2015 · 22:40 UTC
I like the graphic style, the day-night transition effects, the moving sun and moon looks great.
I think use "Left + Right" together could not be count as 2 buttons though.
Overall it's nice game :)
luke
17. Dec 2015 · 22:50 UTC
I really like your graphic style, I think if you had put some sfx (mining, chopping, building) the game would be even better, there is open sfx and music on the internet that you could be used. The game is pretty balanced too, great job!
Karlux
18. Dec 2015 · 01:26 UTC
Very beautiful and unusual graphics. Loved the haunted spirits. Good sense of time passing. I had fun trying to plan the use of stone and iron.
kmakai
21. Dec 2015 · 01:15 UTC
BEAUTIFUL game. This was very elaborate given the constraints of the theme - not only is it growing and two-button controls, but it's multi-faceted in goals, objectives, and commands. I wish the game had a specific end game, and that there were more help screens while playing. That said, it wasn't too hard to figure everything out. Delegating that stone is tough!
Ryusui
21. Dec 2015 · 01:56 UTC
Love it. Really, the sound is all that it's missing. Some stock effects/music would've done wonders for the feel.
Xanjos
21. Dec 2015 · 02:09 UTC
Shame there's no sound but I absolutely loved the visual design and the two button mechanics were well done.
Two Scoop Games
23. Dec 2015 · 03:07 UTC
Excellent animations, solid gameplay. Very nice!
mike.cullingham
23. Dec 2015 · 05:20 UTC
Really nice game, aside from no sound (try sfxr, like the rest of us who suck at sounds :-)). Beautiful graphics, uses both themes, decent gameplay (although if I had known my tower would only take one hit, I probably would've spent more time on my defences). The first few days are pretty slow, but I enjoyed it. Really nice job.
alyphen
23. Dec 2015 · 05:30 UTC
A graphically stunning and beautifully designed survival game. Progression was well-balanced and the attention to detail was incredible. It's sorely lacking sound, but with that and some further expansion (making the later days easier and further resources to gather, or adding an amount of time in each level before you can progress to a different map with different resources or something) I think this could definitely turn into something you could sell.
Spencer Alves
23. Dec 2015 · 05:37 UTC
The resource collecting was quite menial, but despite that it was quite fun! Very pretty too, but I think some simple sound effects and ambiance could have gone a long way.
justinooncx
23. Dec 2015 · 14:01 UTC
Pretty sweet graphics, with interesting gameplay. Like a survival tower defense...
Cliff Lee(CL)
24. Dec 2015 · 05:09 UTC
What a great entry!
The graphics style is so great!
The gameplay is good, but only use two button(but it is theme...) makes me tired of holding left and right.
nassi
27. Dec 2015 · 14:17 UTC
Survived for five nights on my first try. Probably won't try again as each run takes quite a while. Looks good and progresses pretty well, even if the two button control scheme takes a bit of getting used to. Nice and (apart from audio) complete game.
gallerdude
30. Dec 2015 · 00:18 UTC
Wow, you knocked this out of the park. Great controls, great graphics, great gameplay. I look forward to seeing this on the top 10 lists.
KilledByAPixel
30. Dec 2015 · 00:28 UTC
Nice art style. Gameplay was well designed and fun. Felt a bit boring at time collecting resources. Controls could use some massaging, particularly pressing left & right at the same time needs to be more reliable. Could use a bit of story, the world seems interesting and I want to know more. Mood is great but music and sound would have made it even better. Still though after having my level 4 temple destroyed I'm tempted to give it another run. Awesome work overall.
pro-hat-switchers
30. Dec 2015 · 00:38 UTC
Gameplay has an extremely solid foundation, I felt like the difficulty ramp could be tweaked. It was super easy for 3 nights and then I lost. Maybe the temple should be able to take more hits before falling? A wonderful entry with great art and mood!!
Christina Nordlander
31. Dec 2015 · 17:56 UTC
This is one of those ludicrously polished and beautiful entries that make us other participants jealous. The gameplay itself is a pretty typical tower defence game, but there's just so much content to build. The monochrome graphics are great and quite ambient (the spirits are pretty scary when you can only see their silhouettes), and the construction animations are beautiful. Building things felt quite satisfactory in an "Age of Empires" way.

Some music to go with the mood would be awesome.

Definitely one of the more professional entries I've played this time. Please keep making games.
LukeZaz
02. Jan 2016 · 05:03 UTC
Might be biased, as I am a sucker for these types of games, but I found this to be incredibly fun. The graphics are amazing, and the animation is excellent. Would love to see this expanded upon.

My only complaint lies with building, in that the game frequently thinks I'm trying to build something new when I just want to upgrade a preexisting building or chop a tree.
squirrelbot
04. Jan 2016 · 16:55 UTC
Fun, but I found the lack of stone a problem. But I suppose it needs some challenge. It could really have done with some haunting music.